Memory Loss

right, doggie in the window, Calama, 24 May 2008

Santiago, Chile--

I decided to start this blog because it started to bother me that most of the e-mails I receive from old friends and colleagues invariably begin with: "OMG, where ARE you?!" I thought of writing a 'memoir' of the past 10 years and sending a mass e-mail, but I never got around to it, because even if I remember that I've done a number of interesting things in the past decade, the truly interesting details escape me. My memory is shot.

I first came to suspect that my memory was no longer what it used to be when I signed up for Facebook last year and couldn't remember how the heck I knew half the people who sent me friend requests. Other symptoms soon followed: losing my keys ten times a day, forgetting my own birthday, not realizing I've told the same story to the same person about half a dozen times already, getting on the very same train I take everyday- but in the wrong direction. The worst thing is that I've begun to the forget the details surrounding the key events of my past. About six years ago, I threw out the diary I had kept in my 20's for fear that somebody would actually read it when I died. I will regret this forever!

So, I'm starting this blog two months before my 37th birthday because I would like to keep a better account of the second half of my life. But more importantly, I would like to provide family and friends so dispersed and far away some portal into my daily thoughts-- since you are all always in them.