Most frustrating, and I might add, worrying, to me, is my propensity to not be able to find a noun that I know perfectly well. I simply draw a blank in the moment.
I had invited Bob to exercise class, but after he had talked to the instructor, he asked me for her name. Blankness ensued.
I had known the instructor, Ruth, for almost two years and never had a problem with her name before, but in that moment, I drew a blank. Usually, I recover the missing noun in a relatively short period of time, but it wasn't happening at the time.
A few days later, I was making a comment on someone's blog post about my sister-in-law's book, Clay Girl.
I'll be danged if I could come up with the name of the protagonist. In frustration, I googled my own blog posts and realized that, of course, it's Ari!
What I will take for comfort, is that I remember the two incidents precisely, even though the first took place a week past.
That's positive. Right?
The other positive thing is that if someone were to mention either name, I would immediately have a mental picture and more. I could describe Ruth, and I could tell you about the character, Ari, in the book.
That's also positive. Right?
I first blogged about losing nouns (link) almost three years ago. In that post, I wrote about coming up with a word that others were stumbling over. Then, I segwayed into a couple of paragraphs mentioning the problem of which I write today.
On occasion it takes me weeks to find the right word to something I know perfectly well. And then I will just blurt it out during a conversation that has nothing to do with it at all! So you're not alone.
ReplyDeleteI experience the same frustration of not being able to locate words that I know are just out of reach in my brain. The words always show up eventually, but sometimes I have to be inventive during a conversation, just to make sense. I think it's "oldness" creeping up on me.
ReplyDeleteI lose nouns, but work around them. However, it is frustrating to the point of madness. I see it happening to many of my contemporaries, but that doesn't make me accept it kindly. Those are my nouns that are lost!
ReplyDeleteWe are all there with you. We have Google to help us though. Feeling sorry for those before us.
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem. Retrieval on demand is the issue. It will come back to me later. My common response when asked something, such as a name is,”How soon do you want to know?”
ReplyDeleteYou know you are not alone! Things slow down.
ReplyDeleteI have struggled to remember names all my life. I have an extensive number of work-arounds. My dad was the same and was still of sound mind otherwise in his mid eighties. Hope springs eternal. Etc,
ReplyDeleteIt does happen from time to time.
ReplyDeleteIt's a natural part of aging. Give yourself a break!!!
ReplyDelete