Details, details

I think I have a strange relationship with details. I notice some details but not others.
I like it when everything is just right down to the smallest detail, but I really want to know the big picture and how whatever it is fits into the larger scheme of things. I notice little inconsistencies in patterns but regularly leave something behind that I needed. I think maybe I notice so many details sometimes but have a hard time remembering them all.
Some examples from the week:

• I took an exam in which I had to know how to look up fine details of the law and how it would apply to a specific case in order to answer the questions correctly, and got 100%, but couldn't remember the name of the medication I take for allergies every day when I called up my insurance company!
• I gave myself plenty of time to pick up my wife from the airport after renting a car, made sure I had everything lined up for picking her up and then going somewhere together, then remembered that I forgot the GPS at home. I still had time, so I drove back home, picked it up and started to the airport. Well, I missed the turn because I wasn't paying attention until I needed to get over and there was a car there. So I pulled out the GPS and then got lost for 40 minutes while trying to figure out it's directions, (it was mostly "re-calculating" since I kept missing the turn off's or turning too early). I finally made it to pick up my wife 1/2 hour late, (the airport is only a 15-20 minute drive from my house). *note: I am very glad she is here, however. It's awesome.
• I was going to the main office in DC to pick some things up so I thought it would be a good idea to take care of some other things I needed to do there at the same time. I made sure I had what information I needed to bring, printed off the right forms, etc. Then I took off and realized, after I arrived, that I had left the forms I had printed on the computer in the training facility, in Virginia.
• Whenever I read a book, I notice any typos or errors in it, but don't ask me to describe what anyone was wearing at a reception!

Anyway, maybe that's enough of the examples for now. Sometimes I think I need to start tying string to my fingers like Uncle Billy in "It's a Wonderful Life," or writing little letters on my hand like one of my former church colleagues, G. Packer. (Except I could never figure out how he could tell what they were for. I would ask him to do something and he would start writing a little letter or something on his hand between his thumb and pointer finger as he was saying okay.)

But, it's great to have my wife with me for the weekend to help out getting everything taken care of and to just spend some time with her. She is awesome. She sees the details where I don't and I see it where she doesn't and together we somehow, (hopefully), get it all done. We did get to visit Annapolis together yesterday and since it was just the two of us it was almost like an anniversary or something!
It seems like there are some things, like international moves, in which big details spawn a million little details and it takes concerted attention to sort them all out.