My Bad Habit

I have a terrible habit of putting my belongings in a safe place...somewhere that I'll be sure not to lose it. Somewhere that it will be secure. Somewhere that I will surely not forget where it is and will be able to find the important item at a moment's notice.

Unfortunately, I always seem to forget where that safe place is.

Take, for instance, the saga of my digital camera. I moved dorm rooms sophomore year of college, and when I packed up my stuff I put the camera somewhere safe. It was a random, and yet logical, moving space, I reasoned, sure to protect my precious camera during the treacherous move.

After moving I forgot where it was, decided it had been stolen, and lobbied my parents hard for a replacement...until I got packed up to go back to school in August and discovered the camera in a box of winter hats. Safe! Warm! Scratch-proof! (I had not yet learned that a camera case can serve the same function, apparently.)

You would think that I had learned this about myself and stopped hiding things in secure locations like some bizarre squirrel, but alas I have not. This past week I was positive that I had lost the purse that I had used at a wedding this weekend. I turned my whole room upside-down. I demanded that Steve check the bag that he had brought to my house, to ensure that he inadvertently tried to add a polka-dotted Longchamp bag to his wardrobe. I enlisted the help of roommate Michelle to scour the room with me. No luck. It was gone. I mourned the loss of my eyeliner. My favorite lip gloss. The train ticket that I had purchased for my trip this weekend. The cute bag, with its whimsical polka dots. Somehow, I determined, I had lost it.

Finally Michelle asked me where I normally put my bags after I came home. Rolling my eyes, I told her that I normally hang them on the corner of my bed frame. To show her how ridiculous a theory that truly was, I flung back the covers with a flourish to show her the empty bed post ...and found my purse. *

* In this case, 'safe place' can also refer to 'the spot where things are supposed to go, instead of the pile of laundry and debris currently taking up 80% of my floor space.'

What about you? What are your bad habits?