Yesterday while I was in the Apotheke, the nice lady helping me offered me a calendar, which I gladly accepted. A couple of weeks ago, a friend gave me a calendar that a mutual friend had made; his art is perhaps not for everyone, but hey, a calendar is a calendar.
Part of my autumn (or end of year) routine is to pick up a Chefkalendar from my Post Office. It is an A5 sized book tailored for the business day. Office Supply shops are kind of scarce in my neighborhood, and the one shop that I am familiar with seems to have rather strange hours. I think maybe my first couple of years in Germany, I was buying my business calendar at his shop, but one day while running errands, I found his shop closed, and, somewhat disappointed, headed on to the PO to mail a letter (and complete my errands.) While standing in line, I discovered that the PO had office calendars in a little display, and I quickly decided that it was perfect for me.
I really got started on the business calendar kick right after college. I was visiting Spence, and noticed his day calendar. On the way home from the visit, I stopped in the SMU Bookstore and picked up the exact same one. I repeated this routine until I moved abroad.
Sure, I also enjoy a wall calendar, and every year look forward to what scenes or photos I will get to look at on the calendar hanging on the wall in my hallway. This year it was international libraries, last year it was baby goats, the year before that, scenes of Ireland, and so on.
But, it is the day planner that I keep open on the desk and use most frequently. I record so much information there: birthdays, trips to the store, cash flow, when Arsenal play, and generally scribble out to-do lists. For example, today's entry has me updating this blog post, submitting my meter readings to the utility company for the year end, and the time of this afternoon's match. And, as written two seconds ago, make a batch of tortilla soup.
All of these day calendars are still with me from years past, and from time to time I do go back and look at what might have happened on a a given day or in a certain year.
I have noticed that sometimes over the past years, I have used the day calendar in lieu of a journal. That being said, I have another collection of journals, going back decades. And these are almost more important to me than the calendars.
When my junior high English teachers encouraged us to write in our journals, a lot of my fellow students rolled their eyes and considered it just more homework. I developed an appreciation for it, and while I did not keep a steady journal during high school, it did kind of kick in during university, and has continued ever since.
Sometimes I wrote my journals in notebooks displaying the college logo, other times just used legal pads, and eventually found a hardcover notebook specifically designed for journal writing. I must have filled at least 5 of those books up while spending quiet evenings at the Old Monk.
Once you get in the habit, it is pretty easy to maintain a journal. Being a fan of office supply shops, I regularly perused the selection of journals I could use. Additionally, I really got into writing instruments, and thanks to my sister, became a huge fan of Lamy pens. It was all about ink and paper for me.
Moving to Europe was the kickoff of this Blog; it was a request from Pablo, for which I am still grateful. But, I was not about to leave the pen and paper behind. In fact, every post from 2006 was hand written before being typed into the laptop. I actually would edit the hand written stuff before it was posted.
Once I got to Germany, I realized that I would get more posts (stories of the life of Bryan) done if I simply sat at the laptop. Indeed, this has saved me some time, and I found that I could still make some time for writing in my journal. As some of you might have gathered, the blog posts tend to be somewhat personal, but truth be told, despite the fact that I do write for myself, I am aware that there is an audience, however small. With the journals, the entries are significantly more personal.
Journal writing in a pub or a cafe is just a nice way to pass the time. Sadly, writing in public seems to happen less and less for me, but I would not rule it out again some time in the future. In fact, my whole journal writing process has kind of changed over the years. Even 10 years ago, I was still having really expensive paper product sent to me from the US. Seriously, I was paying 100 Euro just to import 100 Euro worth of heavyweight paper. After a while, it got ridiculous. About this time, I also came to the conclusion that no matter how great a writing instrument I was using, my penmanship was going crap.
There was a wonderfully pleasant afternoon maybe 10 years ago when I was sitting by myself at a table outside of my local. As I have mentioned, one tends to see a great deal of the world from the quiet Bornheim corner. This particular afternoon was no exception; I was lucky to have started early, managing a good couple of hours of writing before half the world walked by and stopped to talk.
At one point, I was chatting with a friend, then another couple who knew my friend came up. The guy glanced at the open notebook on the table, and said, "Wow, that is the coolest handwriting I have ever seen. Who wrote that?"
This caused the others to admire the penmanship, and all quickly realized who the author was, as I was the only sitting there with a pen in my hand.
Alas, that was a while ago. These days, there are times when I cannot even read my own handwriting, and start to wonder if I am consuming enough water or lacking sodium, or who knows.
I kept lugging my journal with me wherever I went, but as my backpack was filled with a laptop, calendar, and a journal, I started exploring options for downsizing. Eventually, I moved away from a A4 sized journal, and have conveniently found the smaller A5 (yep, just like my day calendar) journal, which I been using for the past 5 or 6 years.
At my office (which is my kitchen table), my journal is placed to the right of my laptop, and my calendar to the left. Both are black, and from the outside cover, you notice no difference.
Inside, of course, is a completely different story.
And that is so much why I like keeping the journal. It tells the story. Some of the entries are short and sweet, almost more of a diary than anything else. Other days, I write page after page.
Today, I am on the last page of my journal. Fortunately, I had the good sense to stock up on blank journals, so tomorrow I can begin a new book. The one that I am finishing today has a first entry from Jan 1, 2020. That amounts to 192 pages of action packed entries over the past 23 months.
Here's to starting a fresh journal (which is like sleeping on freshly changed sheets), a tasty tortilla soup, and an Arsenal result.
see you out there
Bryan
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