Notebook Madness

I did drag myself out to choir last night (we're doing Mozart, yay!), but then that must have exhausted me because I slept very, very late this morning, and it was deep sleep, not just lying in the warm bed, daydreaming. I gave up on work that required much thought yesterday because I'd catch myself thinking of something else while typing, and as a result I'd have two words merged -- the start of the word I was typing, but the rest of the word would be what I was thinking. And I didn't even notice I was doing it until I re-read what I had just written and couldn't decipher it. So instead I did more "active" stuff like putting away laundry and doing some sorting/cleaning.

One think I've realized in the early stages of this ongoing sorting/cleaning/decluttering project is that I really like notebooks -- large and small spiral notebooks, little bound books, journals, etc. I've bought a few for myself (mostly the spirals because I can't seem to resist cute notebooks on clearance at Target), but I get a lot of them as gifts. That's a pretty standard writer gift. I have a nice journal-type book I got from my publisher, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get at least one in any thank-you goody bag I get for speaking at an event, and I have this really cool one I got from my agent that's hand-made, including the paper itself.

Oddly enough, most of them remain entirely empty. I have used the spiral notebooks, as the small ones are what go in my purse to take notes at conventions or to have handy for random thoughts that occur to me while I'm out and about. But most of the nice bound journal-type books are still blank. I'm not sure what to do with them. I seem to have inherited my grandmother's tendency to keep nice things "for good." That is, some things seem too nice to use for everyday purposes, so you put them aside to save them for something special (which doesn't ever seem to come about). I don't keep a journal other than a blog. I got a one-year diary when I was in second grade and I still haven't finished it. I do all my brainstorming type writing in spiral notebooks that I get at 10 for a dollar. It just seems like a really nice, leather-bound journal should be used for something deep and profound, like writing poetry (which I also don't do). I really can't imagine writing my grocery lists in a notebook with hand-made paper.

I got a nice quill and ink set as a thank-you gift for speaking at a library, so maybe I'll learn to use that, and then write in the hand-made book with that, if I ever get a deep thought. Maybe I should start keeping my "books I've read" list in one of the nice bound books instead of in a spiral notebook. And I will institute a moratorium on buying new notebooks.