Life Skills: Note-Taking

I realized the other day that I need to carry a notebook around. Ideas always come when you're not looking for them, and for me, if I don't write something down right away ... it's gone and never coming back, and the only thing I would remember is that I had this great idea and then forgot it.

I know I'm not unique in this: I once read that Roald Dahl got the idea for a book while his car was stalled on the side of the road, and since he had nothing to write it down on, he wrote it with his finger in the layer of dirt on his car: ELEVATOR.

Dude, I can so relate - and since I let my daughter wash my car the other day (fun on a budget!), even that option is closed to me, at least in the near-term.

I've been writing things down on the backs of the receipts that seem to accumulate in my wallet*, but I have come to fear the day I ever need to return something because I will probably give away the idea that would have won me a Pulitzer Prize because I optimistically bought a size 10 without trying it on and then got it home and remembered, "Oh, Yeah, it’s been a few years since that was actually my size."

I suppose I could have picked up a plain little notebook at an Office Supply Store, but is it really possible to think great thoughts in an average-looking notebook?

So I wandered over to etsy, where I found the most brilliant little notebook:

Don't you just love it? It's made out of recycled blank paper (for my brilliant thoughts) and the cover is from a 1950's Bobbsey Twins book. I used to have a book with the exact same cover.

Looking around some more (if some is good, more is better), I found this little notebook made with the same technique:

If I knew a birdwatcher, I would totally give it to them. Despite the fact that nearly half the photos taken on our recent Belize adventure were of birds**, I believe it is well established that I am not a birdwatcher***. But I think it's adorable, so I might use it for my note-taking.

* I have no idea where they come from. I think that like pennies, they breed at night while I sleep.
** Taken with my husband's camera.
** The correct term is "birder," but I'm still not one.