The Last Notebook of 2022 and a Made-in-the-EU Binder
Prompts
- Only dialogue. For an hour.
- Redefine tool or redefine man
- What the delivery guy saw
The Last Notebook
Do you find yourself using the last notebook of the year differently than the others? Since I started keeping a notebook consistently ten years ago, my last notebook of the year tends to be more ambitious than the others. I review my half-read books and make a plan for which I want to complete. I make an over-the-top list of everything I could get done during the 9ish days off work: sled, go into the city every day, catch up on all the the unread magazines, write 18 short stories, etc.
It doesn’t bother me at all that the list is so long I barely make a dent. In fact, I regularly look at last year’s insane end-of-year list when I make the new one.
But there are no resolutions and no list of my end-of-year favorite book in that notebook. I save all of that for January 1. I don’t know exactly why, but making those lists always feels unseemly to me.
Often, not always, I start a new notebook for the new year. I’ll end my last notebook of the year with blank pages if need be but not before I attempt a mad dash to fill the notebook. I rarely succeed because there’s so much else on my list.
- Adam
The aisle of ELBA
In the stationery section at Goodwill (an easter egg hunt if ever there was one), I found two stiff-covered four-ring binders from ELBA. I’d never heard of the company, but each had a “Made in the EU” sticker. One binder held densely graphed ledger paper, the other a tight graph. And the four rings were just odd enough. I live for these finds and grabbed them right up. A quick search at home revealed they are as basic and cheap as an Office Depot product. But I don’t care! They are unusual to my eyes, the logo suggesting that they are least old despite their good shape. And they are sturdy; the paper stands up to a fine Pilot Metropolitan nib. My work notebook for the new year is set.
- Ted
Our Friends’ Shops
This is a good time of year to remind you that a couple of our friends, including Ted’s sister, run small business that we love.
Peruse their websites and know that we wouldn’t recommend them if we didn’t love what they do.
Ted’s sister runs Main Street Books - Davidson.
Adam’s friends roast great coffee in Oklahoma City at Tawbi Coffee.