The Other Shoe Diaries

I spend a lot of time looking for a shoe. Not one shoe in particular, but just the one that matches whichever one I am currently holding. This is truly a puzzle to me - how do my shoes get so badly separated? I don't come home, take off the left one and wander around for awhile before slipping out of the right. I don't see my shoes sitting together in front of the door and think I'll just take this one upstairs and put it away, and get the other one later. So how is it that they often end up in different rooms or on completely different stories of the house? I just don't get it. The dog doesn't carry them around and this happened long before the baby arrived. The worst is when I find the missing one, only to realize I have set the first one down somewhere and I no longer recall where. Usually I find it later and then remember why I put it there: "I'll set it on this dining chair so that if I see it, I'll know it's the one I already found, and then when I find the other one, I'll come to this chair to put them both on." I think if I could gather and "take back" all the time I've spent looking for a missing shoe, I could probably have done something impressive, like written a book or knitted 50 blankets for foster kids or something. Am I the only one who has this problem? I can't be, but I sometimes suspect I am.