Archive for Memory
April 6, 2008 at 9:49 am
· Filed under Memory
The other day I found this eponymous pad I’d had when I was little. On the back it listed all of the different names that were sold on top of the pad. In my eternal need to categorize, it looked like I had crossed off the names of people I knew. I guess when I was 8, there were no Ritas in my life.
Last night with a few people over, the pad sparked a conversation about — inevitable in a group of 30 year old girls with some wine in them — baby names. That awkward moment of “If I tell you my name do you promise not to take it?” proceeded to occur. But really, what if my name is your name? What if, across the room at a dinner party, you find another future mother-of-Chloe?
I think the answer is there’s no harm in two. Everyone should have the name they want, and if there are a bunch of Chloes running around (there already are), all it means is Chloe will get her name on the pad. Which, when you’re an 8-year-old, is all you really want.
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March 16, 2008 at 6:09 pm
· Filed under Memory, Object
Like the primary pen and the work notebook (yet to be discussed, but important), the Purse Notebook is another constant in my life. Its existence underscores the fundamental notion that electronic to-do lists — no matter how flashy the device — just stink. Lists should always be kept and crossed-off on paper.
The Moleskine is a standard, if obvious, choice for the Purse Notebook. I find people tend to give me these small books as gifts, knowing my stationery passion and happening upon them in gift stores, and I have an endless supply. Its best if it has a sturdy cover, for they tend to last about a year, and get beat up a bit.
Above are my two most recent. The Moleskine was from my days of commuting down the 101 to Yahoo!, thoughts of various undone tasks that would amount to nothing swirling in my head, and is thus labeled “anxiety”. The pink one is from the era of my more recent job at the Media Lab, and is filled with less frantic and more thoughtful lists.
Both have lots of lists of things to pick up at the drug store.
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February 11, 2008 at 9:26 pm
· Filed under Memory, Methodology
This weekend brought me to Vermont to see Katy, of former theme colors fame. When her daughter Yarrow showed me her amazing fruit sticker collection, it was clear to me that she inherited the recreational organization gene that Katy and I posess.
She has a whole binder cataloging different stickers peeled from fruit, sorted according to type and number. Note the comprehensive homemade tabbing system she developed to sort by number. How do they all fit together? Could it possibly be that there is a master fruit catalog somewhere out there, holding the answers?
I have countless stories of recreational cataloging escapades throughout my youth — from kindergarden sticker collections, to bottlecaps laid out in rows on my carpet, to my very first excel spreadsheet cataloging all of the different names J Crew used for the color blue (seafoam, anyone?). For certain children, like Katy, Yarrow, and I, the mere act of collection and sorting is the definition of fun.
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January 28, 2008 at 8:21 pm
· Filed under Memory, Object
Sadly, I lost this pen before it came to an end. I had a bad night where I was in a tizzy about my new job, head spinning, my cell phone got lost or stolen, and along with it went this pen.
The VBall is a true historical staple, and this was the first time I’d returned to it in awhile. I got this one in Japan, so unlike the picture above, it had a cute light green part of the top that complemented the kelly green body. The VBall was the first roller ball that I remember using that had consistently smooth ink (its claims are true), and for that innovation should go into the Hall of Fame. My only issue with them is that they are short enough to feel stubby.
I also found tonight a “Pen Selction Guide” on the Pilot Web site. It is minimally clever, but I’m glad someone is taking the time and effort to give $3 pen selection its just due.
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January 6, 2008 at 9:42 pm
· Filed under Memory
[[Age 14]]
The year after theme colors was 9th grade. I guess I relaxed a bit; I’m surprised to see I was using different pens in different classes. My cousin Liz, who is truly more my sister than my cousin, had gone on a Putney Student Travel summer program to France that summer and brought me my first real French planner. Clearly an influential move on her part, on the stationery front and otherwise.
9th grade was a year to make new friends and try to find my place. I don’t remember that part of it being too easy.
I do remember being happy that header color in the planner changed each month. This one was April. I’m pleased that since I’m back on an academic calendar these days, month-changing has meaning again. Working Life in California — without seasons and especially without summer — had a subtle but constant lack of context.
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December 15, 2007 at 3:13 pm
· Filed under Memory, Place
[[Age 20]]
Was when I studied in Paris, and spent class hours coveting Sarah M.’s filofax, only to find this beautiful store where I could buy my own. The best part about Filofaxes is all of their inserts — maps, timetables, pockets. It gives the illusion that, given enough time to build up the appropriate collection, All The Answers can be found in one book.
In the end, the Filofax proved too much of a commitment for me; it’s sturdy leather designed to last a lifetime didn’t allow me enough chances to buy new planners. But it was fun while it lasted.
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December 5, 2007 at 9:31 pm
· Filed under Memory, Place
[[Age 31, and also 8]]
I’d like to add myself to the many who have blogged about the gem called Au Petit Bonheur La Chance in the Marais, in Paris. Though I am neither a lover of antiques nor of kitchen collectibles, I do have a huge heart for anything French, and was delighted by their collection of old stationery.
Especially this “While You Were Out” pad, which now sits by my phone at work.Back in the days when I would go to Woolworth’s and buy carbon paper receipt books to play store, pink While You Were Out message pads were another “form I wish I had reason to fill out for real” favorite. Now that I have a real job with real voicemail, I can celebrate my legitimate need with this lovely pad.
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December 3, 2007 at 7:42 pm
· Filed under Brand, Memory
[[Age 31, and also 20]]
Swedish Ordning & Reda was my first true paper love. The perfect primary-colored stacks of notebooks up the walls opened my eyes to a whole world of post-Mead loveliness.
Over the years, even after it got bought by Bodum, I remained true. I take detours in every time I’m in a city with a shop. During my study abroad, I backpacked through all of Italy with pounds of notebooks for the coming semester on my back. Every hard day at work I harbor secret fantasies about opening a franchise or finally giving them the gift of eCommerce.
Today I brought John to the shop in Paris and had to say goodbye to my love. Instead of endless desire and office practicality I saw cheapish looking gifty items and far too many scrapbooking materials. What is Ordning & Reda doing at Les Halles anyway? What happened to the love I left in the Marais?
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June 20, 2007 at 2:14 am
· Filed under Memory, Methodology
[[Age 13]]
The outlet that has absorbed the greatest amount of my office supply energy over the years is undoubtedly my day planner. I work in and around technology, so I’ve succumb to keeping an electronic calendar in the past few years, but the change has been wistful.
The crowning glory of my agenda achievements came in eighth grade. Every Friday night Katy K. and I would color in our birds for Mr Hubley’s class, watch TGIF on ABC, and choose our theme colors for the following week.
Every block on the page was a class for that day; theme colors alternated across boxes. Tests were listed at the top of the box, and homework in the center. Bad theme colors could mar a whole week; good ones lifted it up.
Katy moved away to New Jersey after that, but our planning passion lived on. Now she lives happily in Vermont with Yarrow and Rob, and, happily, I’m seeing her next month.
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