Memory loss (#131; Topic D)

My wife and I moved into a retirement community in April 2005, about 13 months ago. Though the move is within the same county, involving but 8-9 miles, I somehow can no longer remember my old neighborhood. On May 6, I lost my way trying to be on the same Freeway exit to northern Virginia (where, on the first Saturday of each month, I attend a class on Dao De Jing, which happens to use my translation as the text), resulting in my abandoning the trip -- the class would be half over before I could even find an exit to drive on. Learning from this sad experience, I wised up -- now, in going to northern Virginia, I simply use the Freeway exit closest to me; it is longer, takes more time, but the drive is straight forward -- on May 19, I took my sister and brother-in-law, visiting us from Hong Kong, to the airport without undue delay, a major accomplishment, given my present state of affairs. Sunday, May 21, I was to attend a lecture on "US-China diplomatic relations: past and present," held in a Chinese restaurant I have frequented at least several dozen times, though none since moving to our present address. Even the restaurant is situated between our old and new residence (thus, only about 5 miles from us), somehow, I could not remember how to drive there. Looking at my map was no help either; somehow I could not locate the street. Taking a chance by leaving early, I was promptly lost. Asking for direction while driving -- on a street presumed to be nearby -- was no help either; a driver who said "follow me" led me to a shopping center, and I was worse off. Luckily, I drove out, and was on a street reasonably familiar; it led to the restaurant -- I was just a couple of minutes late. What sheer luck! On Tuesday May 23, after returning from attending a board meeting of the Library of Congress's Asian Division, I somehow could not locate my wallet when I was ready to go to our branch library yesterday afternoon. I called our retirement commnity's security office and then the administrative office (the latter held my wife's pocketbook when she lost it a few months ago); no luck. Remarkably, I found my wallet in the back pocket of a pair of walking shorts -- I simply forgot that, around 4:30 Wednesday, before driving to a post office just outside our compound to mail a few letters, I apparently put my wallet into the shorts' back pocket I was then wearing. I simply could not remember that I did that. Completely upset, and taking advantage of my wife having a shopping-and-dinner outing with several of her friends in the community, I decided to see a movie instead. The movie did not cheer me up; I came to the unescapable realization that my memory is beginning to fail me.