Notes to Self

Jessica and I have decided to do some posts together, because well why not.  We're often thinking about the same types of things at the same time, anyway.

So today we are both writing about notes that we write to ourselves.

I used to have this really good short-term memory.  It is...less good now, which is really frustrating to me and just makes me mad, but there's nothing I can do about it, except write things down and make some attempt at keeping it all together.

Sometimes I use post-it notes, which are good when I have to keep track of all those repetitive things in life...but they tend to accumulate, and then I have this pile of post it notes, and they get stuck to other things and each other, and sometimes I wonder why I am still keeping them, but they might have one little piece of information on them that could come in handy in the future, or that I really need to remember to get around to addressing...it gets a little messy.

 

 I write a lot of recipes on post-it notes, though I'm trying to get out of the habit.  In Georgia, my cabinets were covered in post-it notes...I had a vague idea of eventually not having all of my recipes in post-it notes, but they just kind of stayed there because I could find them.  They usually didn't have titles, but I could tell which recipes were which because I remembered what spot on the cabinet they occupied.

I've used notebooks before, and those tend to work well for me.  They do taper off in usage eventually; I'm not really sure why.  I love notebooks and sketchbooks, and I tend to have too many of them and I like to have them specialized, but I think that maybe complicates things.  Though I don't want to admit it.

Lately, though, I have taken to using a nice simple spiral notebook.  It's comfortable.

But the weird thing is, in the last month I have come to use this for everything.  Like, my whole life.  I take notes on philosophical concepts I am studying.

I write notes on Japanese grammar and use it for exercises and vocabulary and phrases.  (And I get additional notations from little hands.)

I use it to write down scripture chains in my scripture study, and for many many meditation notes.

And, I have taken to using it as a regular journal, which is potentially dangerous.  (Okay, maybe not just potentially.)  When I started my spiral notebook, intending it mostly for study notes and etc, I had just finished my last hardcover journal.

I wasn't eager to start a new journal with the topics I was currently wrestling with, for some reason.  Just seemed like a bad start to a journal...  So on a page of my notebook, I started rambling about one thing or another...and it was so comfortable, and it had so much space, and it was always right there at my fingertips when I had something to say, and it didn't take me long to just throw up my hands and decide to use it.

I have had a journal since I was a little girl, and I have many many volumes.  Sometime in high school, I realized I wrote so much that hardcover books weren't very practical for me then, so I started using spiral books, and then even that got to be a lot so I started using looseleaf and putting it in binders.  At some point, I went back to hardcover books, and I still wrote a lot...but my writing has tapered off.  That above journal spanned years, which is rather pathetic for me.

My writing has picked up a lot since I have been using my spiral.  It's just so comfortable and *right there*.

And by "picking up a lot" I mean that I've gone through this particular notebook in six weeks (and that slowly only because a third of those weeks it wasn't used as a journal).  So if I continue, I can expect to go through about 12+ notebooks a year.......that does makes me cringe.  Who in the world would ever want to read or keep this stuff?  I'll need whole rooms to store them.  And it would kill me to lose them all in some calamity.  But it is good for me, at least...because though I can't imagine anyone else wanting to go through all of this, and it will end up a terrible chore to store, I can't remember a damn thing without writing it down, and there's lots to remember at this point with little kids.  And having the freedom to be able to put everything in one place at a time will make a lot of things easier.  My poor brain.  :(

Here is a journaling page about a dream I had.  On a day like the last few weeks, I can easily write eight or more pages as solid as this.......which makes me feel a little crazy.  But all things considered I am feeling it necessary, not just for journaling, but also for the other purposes mentioned about, which are seeming more and more connected to me.  It's been a long time since I've had a comfortable place for study notes, and it's useful to have all of this all together.

I think maybe my kids will be interested to go through my papers someday...but man what a chore they will have...I almost feel guilty.  But I've always felt that my notes and writings were for me primarily, anyway.  If anyone else gets anything out of them, then...well, I will probably just feel embarrassed, lol.  Oh well.

***

Update:  See, I didn't *write down* the fact that I should have checked that I post this at the same *time* as Jessica.  I thought, for sure I'd remember that...

I've been feeling especially...awesome...the last couple of days.  I am so not there.  *sigh*