My brother
got me a gorgeous red leather journal from Paris recently. (I believe the French people call them “zhur-nals.”)
What makes this even more impressive was that besides it not even being my birthday or a national holiday, he actually went to Paris and bought it (not
the sole purpose of the trip, I hope, but a lovely gesture nonetheless). Every day, I look at that journal and promise
to write something profound in it. Every
day, I break my promise. And the next every
day, I remake the promise.
My step-mother
sends me lovely journals from the high-end stationery store, Papyrus. I think she does not realize we have Papyrus
here in Crazy Town mall, about a 5 minute drive from my house. She thinks the Papyrus near her in Denver is
the only one.
My sister
once gave me a tape-recorder (“In case you can’t get to a pen, or in case the idea
is too fast”). Yeah, ‘cause my ideas are
like Nascar racers, they leave tire tracks on your feet.
Queen Virgo eyes
the lovely stack of (unopened) journals, pristine in their originalness.
She kisses the Waterman pen, and sets it (still full of ink) next to its lovely twin (a gift from the college boyfriend).
And right then, she has a magnificent idea for a blog. She reaches for her trusty "Special Deluxe" pen …
… and then
she grabs the one type of paper she uses to write down 100% of her ideas:
But she will
never throw away the journals.
MOV
To get a gift from Paris--so wonderful, perhaps just having it will inspire you to write in the red journal. Brothers can come through after all.
ReplyDeleteWell, it did inspire this post, even if I did pound it out on the keyboard and not touch the Waterman......
DeleteI'm exactly the same. I have stacks and stacks of lovely journals. Elegant. pristine, and beautiful. And empty. :)
ReplyDeleteThis post stirred my little writerly heart just looking at it - that red leather journal, the Waterman pen.. *sigh*
why do we do this to ourselves????????
DeleteI used to have journals and never wrote in them. I prefer to scratch in a drawing pad if I need to.
ReplyDeleteBMW sent me a free "BMW" pen when I bought my car. I love it. I may go buy another car just for the pen.
I can take your old car for you. I'm nice like that.
DeleteSee, I'm the exact opposite: I write in my journals like I'm getting paid per word. Always have, imagine I always will. To me, it's like a cheap form of therapy!
ReplyDeleteaha. If you did not live so far (ahem, another continent), I would drive all my (empty) fancy journals over to your house!!!
DeleteI just have a Microsoft Word document called "Ideas" in which I type bullet points of ideas with no real organization.
ReplyDeleteIt is 48 pages.
HA!!!! I just got a mini-blog from YB! Love your punch line. :)
DeleteI used to collect journals with the high aspiration of writing an epic fantasy novel. I think I wrote in one... once. But I still have them all. Whenever I come across them I get all nostalgic and stare off into space. Maybe someday, haha. ;)
ReplyDeleteP.S. - Thanks for being such an awesome writer. ♥ Your posts always brighten my day.
Hi Teri, and your lovely comment certainly brightens my day, too!!!! I read it and was wondering for a second it you had commented on the wrong blogger site by mistake............
Deleteseriously, thank you!!
My mom went to Paris yesterday (not even kidding). I asked her to bring me a croissant, but maybe I should have asked for a zhur-nal.
ReplyDeletecall her, Kelly. the international phone charges will be worth it to get the zhur-nal!
Delete(and ps-- your cat story on your blog freaked me out!)
I have so many journal, all unused. I have good intentions--really, I do--but what it comes down to is that I'm afraid to ruin them by writing in them. LOL
ReplyDeleteDana, I think you just summed it up. Really, the journal people could just sell us all PICTURES of journals since we never actually use them.
DeleteI have an oddly similar stack of journals (and even a zhur-nal!) with their accompanying fancy pens. I always feel like my writing isn't pretty enough to use such things.
ReplyDeleteI tend to use the back of envelopes and dirty napkins, with a free pen that I seem to have gotten from a roofing company.
ha! the roofing company pen! love it.
DeleteI love everything related to writing or stationary, especially as delicious as journals and pens. However, when someone brings me a diary or journal, i just keep it neat between my clothes, afraid to use them by writing in it :D
ReplyDeleteYour Paris journals looks great !
Follow me?
http://myyblueepenn.blogspot.com/
ah, so nice that you understand my journal angst.....
DeleteToo funny, MOV.
ReplyDeleteSticky-notes and piles of scrap paper with notes written every-which-way ace fancy journals any day. It is not the tools with which we write that create the wonderfully creative ideas-it is the mind and the handiest scrap of paper, sticky-note and pencil. A ballpoint will do in a pinch! ":)
Hi Raymond, you always say just the right (write) thing! thank you!!!!
DeleteAll my ideas, well at least the ones that I don't let flow freely from my unfiltered mouth directly to the keyboard go into my cell phone's memo pad. I'm afraid a journal would make me want to write something serious and I just don't do serious well. LOL
ReplyDeleteYou are smart to put them on your cell phone memo pad. I will see if I can find that on my cell phone.......... or if I can find the actual cell phone first.
DeleteOh, can I relate! I love journals. I just...love them. They're beautiful and filled with promise. But, like you, I never write in them. I write on sticky notes or on the computer. I've only ever written in a journal, when I was travelling. But my "journal" was just a lined school notebook, since it was light and didn't take up any space in my bag. I have a bunch of journals lined up on my bookshelf. They're beautiful. And empty.
ReplyDeleteour journals can be friends.
Deleteis your journal made of clay?
I have severe zhur-nal envy.
ReplyDeleteI had a beautiful, lilac diary that I kept pristine and unspoiled for years. Then I read one of those emails people always forward on to you in work, where it spoke of a woman who had cancer and wished she'd lit her fancy rose candle instead of "keeping it safe" in the garage only to find it disintegrated and ruined. I filled every god-damn page of that thing after that.
And yes, it does look like a pen-coffin. But a cosy one.
I'm so jealous of people buying you these things. I actually buy other, non-writer people pens in the hope they'll return the favour. But they don't.
but I do not keep it in the garage for someday! I keep it in the study for someday!
DeleteI find myself using the notepad app on my cell phone to jot down my ideas before they leave my brain. A pretty journal would be so much more professional. Of course, I would never want to write down my crazy flight of ideas on such pretty paper :)
ReplyDeletehttp://mommypluscoffee.blogspot.com/2012/05/anatomy-lesson-part-two.html
Deletekindred spirits...........
DeleteI have these pens that are the kind the astronauts use. They can write upside down, as if there is no gravity. They come in handy when I'm in bed. Trouble is I don't like to turn on the light. Don't want to wake my husband. So I make notes in the dark. Can't always decipher what I have written. Have started making notes on my phone. Works much better.
ReplyDeleteI want an astronaut pen! are you an astronaut? (that might explain the birdie's view thing........)
DeleteThat's too funny! I am the exact same way about journals...I save them for something special or important; even the dollar store ones that I buy so I won't have to blemish the nice ones-those ones end up sitting empty as well.
ReplyDeletewhy do we do it ??? why why why???
DeleteI used to write in my journals much more before I had children. Now I get to write down something every few months. But, that red journal from Paris, that's a beauty!
ReplyDeleteI can see you have good journal intentions like me.
DeleteI've about given up. I tried to start one about memories of parenting for my kids, but that didn't last. Another got a decent amount of scribbling as I tried to keep track of characters and whatnot in my first book. I have many more empty ones. They sure are pretty.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are pretty. :)
DeleteOkay, you win. Your pile of unused journals is bigger than mine.
ReplyDeleteha! because I am over 40!
DeleteI love journals (or zhur-nals). But I refuse to buy them because I know I won't use them. Oh I have vivid fantasies of said journal becoming my inseparable best friend. But, then reality sets in and I remember that I'm me. Which means I'm lazy. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI think we have something in common here, Missy!
Delete