lost

For years I have watched my friends wrestle with their digital address books, locked in their computers and smartphones, and felt superior, because my addresses were kept in a battered Italian book bought years ago, crammed with addresses, phone numbers and interesting bits of info gathered over the years (long distance calling codes; notes taken during lectures etc.) Computers and smartphones crash; paper does not.

A few days ago, I needed to fill in an area code, so brought my address book to the computer in the kitchen, looked up the number and filled it in. And that's the last time I saw the book. I've looked everywhere - it has vanished off the face of the earth. It was recycling day, and I can only imagine that it got swept into the recycling and is gone forever.

Just before I leave for a month-long trip.

So, a tiny panic, writing to people to gather addresses and phone numbers again. All is not lost - I do have a large central book kept in my desk, in which some addresses are kept.

Okay, so paper does not crash. But it's harder to sweep a Blackberry or iPhone into the newspaper recycling bin. Things in my life keep getting lost, and that includes my mind.