My husband won’t admit that he journals, but essentially, that’s what he’s doing every time he records in this little shirt-pocket sized calendar/calf record book.
It’s become his memory bank or hard drive, and he’s very possessive and protective of it. If I want to look at it, he always asks me why. I rarely look at it unless I am trying to jog my memory about something I did or our family did on a particular day for my own journaling purposes.
If I have it for more than a few minutes, he will ask, “Are ya done with my record book yet?†He watches me like a dog watches the dinner table whenever I scan through his abbreviations and notes. He acts anxious like I’m going to drop it carelessly on the floor when I’m done with it like a runaway toddler.
It’s become a very valuable possession to him. Last week he just about had a come-apart when he couldn’t find it and thought it might’ve gone through the wash. I didn’t know he could get so worked up over anything besides me.
His calf record books have become his lifeline. He records everything that he thinks might be information he’ll need later.
He doesn’t write as many details as I do and he’s a lot more consistent about updating his than I am about mine (I jot down notes about my day in my planner). He uses a lot of made up abbreviations so a lot of his notes are hard to decipher and need translating.
Unlike me, he prefers his record book broken in. I like mine crisp, clean, and brand new. He also makes a special pen holder in the cover of a new record book so he’s never without a pen to jot down things down.
He’s particular about his record book pen as much as he is about his book. It has to be slim and short to fit in the book and it can only be a black ink pen.
He understands now why all these years he’s seen me filling up the little squares of my planner. What he records has come in handy hundreds of times. It’s taken a long time, but he’s come around to the idea of journaling although you should take note that he calls it “updating.â€
Leave a Reply