the "i" is for "i have absolutely no clue"

This is what a letter "I" looks like when you scrawl it on your arm in the dark at 2 a.m.Last night I had a remarkable idea.

Or I remembered an urgent task. One that must be completed today under penalty of something very, very unpleasant.

Either way, it was deeply important. Important enough that I was worried about forgetting it. That can happen to ideas. Just ask Coleridge.

It was well into the wee hours, and I'd been awake tossing and turning; I hadn't ever gone to sleep. To turn on the light in order to write down the idea or memory might disturb whatever remaining properly functioning circadian rhythm I might have. So I got clever: I groped for a pen on my nightstand and, in the dark, scribbled a single black letter onto my left forearm.

Then I resumed tossing and turning. I thought about the day ahead. I thought of a "Modern Love" column I'd like to write for the New York Times. I wondered if anything would come from a book project I'm working on. I thought about what it would cost to alter a dress I plan to wear to a wedding I'm attending in four months.

Then I thought about the letter on my forearm: Mustn't forget that. It's a brilliant idea. No, wait, it's an urgent task. No, wait... 

I had forgotten it. Thirty minutes after scrawling a black "I" on my left forearm, I had no recollection of what it meant. Go to sleep. Go to sleep and you'll remember it in the morning, I promised myself.

Eventually I fell asleep, and this morning, after an oh-so-refreshing three hours of slumber, I woke up to find the "I" on my arm. It was like the movie where the guy suffers from amnesia and has to tattoo things on his body. I have absolutely no idea what it means. "I need to stop writing things on my arm," perhaps?