Because you're probably too drunk to even remember

[venta]

As some of you will know, I cheerfully make up words all the time. But I'm struggling to think of a word I'd like to exist... I can come up with neither a real one nor a decent substitute.

Can anyone suggest a word or phrase to convey the sensation of realising you've forgotten something that you always remember?

Every week, when I go to work in the Oxford office, I need to put extra cables into my laptop bag. Usually I remember. Occasionally I forget. This is not the thing I'm describing.

When I leave the house without tying my hair up, I clip a hairslide to one of my belt loops. If I'm not wearing trousers, I clip it on the strap of a bag or similar.

Always.

On Sunday, in far-flung south-east London, I reached for my hairslide. It wasn't there. This never happens.

Perhaps it had sprung off? It hadn't. When I got home, there it was waiting. I genuinely can't think of having ever forgotten this before. It's surprisingly disconcerting.

Comments

[spodlife]

The nearest I can find from The Meaning of Liff is "GOLANT" - "Blank, sly and faintly embarrassed. Pertaining to the expression seen on the face of someone who has clearly forgotten your name."

[venta.livejournal.com]

That's definitely a good word, thank you! It's time I read that book again :)

I think I want more of an element of disbelief, though, and could probably lose the "sly" part.

[shermarama]

I think there probably isn't a word for this because I think not many people are that good with systems that something like this can happen to them. (Um, and actually when something like this happens to me I secretly quite like it.)