Do You Have a Preference?

I have a whole list of them.

One of the things I have always loved doing is keeping track of what my friends and family like and, just as important, what they don’t. It helps with gift-giving but also it’s just really nice to make it abundantly clear as often as possible that I know them well, and I truly see them.

I kept all of that information in my brain without much effort until the last couple of years. With the addition of two daughters-in-law about whom I care deeply (and thus I have to, gladly, remember two more people’s stuff) combined with perimenopause brain (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), I found myself asking questions multiple times because I just can’t retain every crumb of helpful information anymore. “WHAT was your favorite flavor at Nothing Bundt Cakes again?? I know I just asked you two months ago but I forgot.” What a bummer.

That’s where technology comes in, thank goodness.

I literally keep a list in my phone called “Preferences So I Don’t Forget.” It includes things like:

• a reminder about one daughter-in-law who doesn’t have pierced ears (I forgot and bought her earrings not once, but two times)

• a reminder that one son and one daughter-in-law don’t like peanuts as a topping (I can’t remember how that question came about)

• a reminder that one family member doesn’t like pomegranate seeds

• a mention of the two relatives who like caramel corn ONLY, not cheese or the caramel/cheese mix, from Garrett’s Popcorn Shop in Chicago

• the flavors of tuna pouches my husband doesn’t like to eat for lunch

You get the idea.

I even have a reminder on the list for myself: “Order Power Greens from CAVA, not Super Greens! Super Greens are crunchy and gross!”

The list is obviously a work-in-progress but also a labor of love. Occasionally I chuckle to myself thinking about how someday (hopefully not for another forty years or so) my kids will be looking through my phone to see if I left anything important or interesting in there, and maybe they’ll see the list and shake their heads comically at each other as they smile and mutter, “Yeah, mom was like that!”

I hope that by then my preferences list will be an annoyingly long and, more importantly, absolutely hilarious record of my attention to detail.

In fact, hilarity is a good goal. I’m going to work on that.

This Garrett Mix (I do not call this “Chicago Mix,” just like I do not call the Sears Tower or Marshall Field’s anything else) is mine, all mine!