I'm a big slob. I just don't notice mess most of the time; my eyes sort of skim over it because I'm thinking of other things, and it doesn't register. When it does register, it's only briefly, like, "Wow, that's messy," and then I move on and forget about it. For some reason my brain doesn't go the next step like most people's brains seem to: "Hmm, I'd better clean that." I have to deliberately focus and work to get to that step.

So yesterday on the way to tutoring I had one of those moments of creative clarity, and I stopped and wrote down what I need to do next on this ms on a sticky note pad I keep in the car. Hours later, after tutoring, I brought the sticky note in and put it somewhere, probably on the kitchen counter while I did family stuff. Then I decided I didn't have time to work on my WIP, and I may have moved the sticky note close to my desk, probably even onto my desk.

Anyhow, the point is, that today is recycling day, and out of alllll the papers I haven't straightened or picked up, I apparently picked up and THREW AWAY this one very important sticky note. It was probably the best damn sticky note of all time, and as I look back on it, I feel certain it would have solved all my problems and I would have shot right to the end on this ms and it would have been finished and ready to send off within, oh, say two months. But my sticky note is gone! I cleaned it! Oh, the irony!

I know what part of the ms it was about, and vaguely what it had to do with. Now I have to dig in and try to find the place in my head that originally came up with it. It kills me to think that my wonderful, priceless, ms-saving sticky note is being smushed in among the useless junk mail and discarded plastic milk cartons on the recycling truck.