I could invent an excuse involving dehydration or bladder shyness

I could invent an excuse involving dehydration or bladder shyness."However, in reviewing the assessment, I learned there are several good reasons why Abstract Randoms -- "A-Rs" for short -- appear so flighty.com.I could fill the cup with water and "trip" on my way out of the bathroom."High blood pressure?" Nope.Shari Caudron is an award-winning columnist, writing coach, and author of "What Really Happened," a collection of humorous stories about the lessons life teaches you when you least expect it. But last week I got some valuable insight into absent-mindedness when I completed an assessment called the Gregore Style Delineator. Many long seconds later, I stood, re-zipped my jeans, and, still absorbed in my thoughts, looked down to find the empty plastic cup waiting on the tile counter."That's okay," she said, grabbing the empty cup and dropping it into her metal box. The word "lively," for example, struck me as more appealing than "rational.)Furthermore, A-Rs rarely Brass fittings Factory work in a sterile office with an orderly desk."But I've even forgotten things at the Zen Center, like the time I misplaced my purse before an important ceremony and had nothing to contribute to the fight against world hunger. Her filing cabinet is in her head. As a journalist, I'm paid to find connections between people and the events that surround them. So what if I forget a purse in the process?All of this has gotten me to thinking about something I learned in a novel writing class and that is that a character's greatest strength is also her biggest weakness.Copyright, 2005, Shari Caudron.My consciousness careened back to the present.  Shari regularly delivers speeches to women's groups about how to transform ordinary experiences into opportunities for personal growth. Instead, and I plead guilty, the office of an A-R is located in whatever coffee shop she happens to be working in.This assessment groups people into four types based on how they value certain words." I liked the word "spontaneous" better than "trouble shooter. I could wedge through the narrow window above the bathtub and flee to the airport. One of my goals has been to become less forgetful by being more fully present.The scary part for me is that over the last few months I've also been going to a Zen Center in an effort to practice meditation and mindfulness.Diabetes?" she asked, as if accusing me of illicit drug use. I have nothing better to do. And it's getting worse. Thus, I have to spend time musing about life and what it means, and sometimes the best time for musing is when I'm doing some other mindless task."Cancer?" Nope. "I'll come back tomorrow. "I can drink a bunch of water and try again in a few minutes," I offered. The cup!! How could I forget to fill the cup?!! I picked it up and held it at eye level.When she'd completed the questionnaire, she reached into a portable metal case and retrieved a white plastic cup. The cup seemed larger somehow, and infinitely unfillable, like a gigantic movie prop from "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.