Family archives

When my mother died in September of 2017, she left behind a ton of papers and photos. She was supposed to have been sorting and labeling the photos for the 12 years since Katrina. (Very thankful they were on the second floor of her house in New Orleans, as it had 10 feet of water in it.) They were sorted a bit, and there were labels on the back of a few, but for the most part, nada. A lot of the people in the older photos I never knew. Some of them I know who they are, others, no. Mum is the only one who knew. It's possible my uncle would know, but not really going down that path.

I'll keep and catalog any photos having any people I know in them, the others are most likely going to become a part of some art project. I'm sorting, labeling, and scanning them, then they will go into albums.

Mum also left a shit-ton of letters...it looks like every letter she ever received from about the late 40s on. She gave very explicit instructions that the ones from her mother were NOT to fall into the hands of my uncle and his wife LOL. But I am scanning them and will make available to my brother, his son, and my kids, if they're interested. Junior Birdman, of course, never met her.

Today, I was starting on the photos and then realised I actually needed to do the letters first because they contain dating and identifying information on the photos. Which means, of course, I'll end up having to read a goodly number myself, something I had hope to avoid (I have my reasons).

Soldier on!

Am I a planner/journal junkie?

This post is dedicated to my bestie, Dianne Sylvan, with whom I share a love of planners, journals, writing, art, and coffee. You can check out her books and blog here 

Every Thursday, for years now, we meet at our favourite coffee shop, with occasional breaks because of holidays or finals at the university (the students all think a coffee shop is the place to study; they’re right of course), to write, chat, engage in snark (usually about the clueless college students around us), share journaling supplies, especially washi tape ¹, and generally enjoy each other’s company and a night away from home.

As I wrote in the last couple of posts, we’re under the duress of a pandemic: quarantines, lock-downs, shelter-in-place orders, and of course idiots. As a result, our favourite coffee shop has been closed and Sylvan and I couldn’t sit together even if it were open. So, we’ve been meeting via Zoom². The Zoom meetings often include her roomie/BFF, who is also a very close friend of mine, occasionally my husband, and the combined menagerie of cats and dogs.

Among other things last night, we were talking about people on YT presenting their “planner lineup for year XXXX.” And our question was, “WTF do you do with that many planners, woman? You’d not have time for anything else.” I decided to watch a couple to see. The queen seems to be novelist Sarra Cannon 

19.

Yes, 19.³

She, of course, has caveats for a few of them and admits that by the end of the year she might not be using all 19. (NB: she never mentioned a number. I had to watch the whole thing twice to get the count right.)

You can either watch the video yourself or save yourself 47 minutes and get the Cliff’s Notes here. Not all of these are planners and some planners are used more as journals, so here we go.

1.        Hobonichi Weeks in a pink Foxy Fix leather cover. Goes everywhere with her, is her wallet, daily expenses, weather, appointments, events, expenses, weekly income.

2.       Hobonichi Techo⁴ Original, A6, Part of her evening routine , track tarot readings

3.       Hobonichi Cousin, A5. Morning routine, signs, affirmations, synchronicities, journaling issues she’s dealing with, something she’s reading, meditation, insights, mental health

4.       Hobonichi 5-year Techo. 5-year diary

5.       A5, 6-ring with her own HB90 quarterly planner. Changes covers monthly (has 15+ of them), and the colour scheme etc., but the “guts” stay the same, just changes quarterly. Goals, monthly, weekly, daily pages, tasks, business to-dos, social media planner, writing sprints, ideas for Heart Breathings (her YT channel), vision board.

6.       Classic Happy Planner. Meal planning, food tracking

7.       Erin Condren LifePlanner (ECLP) Colourful Classic, vertical. Memory journal for her kids, family

8.       ECLP Neutral Classic. Everything to do with writing career, promotional ideas

9.       EC Deluxe Monthly Neutral, July-June. Planning Heart Breathings, blog, courses. This kind of planner has only monthly spreads and at least half of it is lined notebook paper.

10.   EC Deluxe Monthly Neutral. Family budget

11.   EC On-the-Go Folio. Wellness, habits, gratitude, self-care, and a blank dot-grid for journaling.

12.   ECLP Classic, Horizontal. Family gaming journal, track games, characters, fun things that happened, also the anime the watch.

13.   EC soft cover, hourly. Time tracker.

14.   Astro Moon Diary. Used only for the images and the information it contains.

15.   Chic Sparrow Traveler’s Notebook (TN) A5. Used in meditation area, journaling, dreams.

16.   Webster’s Pages composition-size cover, with May Designs composition notebook. Notes on the last two books of her series.

17.   TUL disc binder. Contact information and information on coaching sessions with her coaching clients.

18.   iPad with Good Notes app: amber McKee’s Fresh Start planner workbook.

19.   Old, Deluxe (full-size) Happy Planner. Converted into a plotting notebook

So. If there’s someone out there with more, I really do not want to know.  Granted, as I said, some of these are journals and not strictly for the year 2020, but still. Yikes.

But then, I got to thinking, how many planner-type things am I using? Well, let’s check it out, remembering I don’t always keep up with them.

1.       An Erin Condren LifePlanner (ECLP) coiled neutral, vertical, which I have not touched since I got back from my ill-fate trip to the UK. March is full of plans, departures, arrivals, hotels, notes on places to go. April has a couple of doctor’s appointments, which have all been canceled, and then POOF. I think I’m going to turn this into a planner for my book; maybe it’ll help me stay on track (hahahahahaha).

2.       Cultivate What Matters Powersheets. I hadn’t touched these either after I got back, up until last week. They’re very trendy and mostly for people who actually have a life and give a fuck, but I thought what the hell. And I was trying to use them, but the plague kinda derailed it.

3.       My trusty faux TN, regular size. Sylvan gave me a cover made of vegan “leather” and several inserts. She’d tried the system and really didn’t care for it. It’s become my every day carry (EDC); it even went to England with me. I have several inserts, a folder for receipts, etc., a plastic folder with a pouch for stickers, and pockets for credit cards, although they usually hold old credit cards with lengths of washi tape on them, a DIY monthly insert, a dot-grid “bujo,” a DIY tarot journal that Sylvan made, an insert with a gold cover and chocolate brown pages by Chronicle Books used as a kind of junk/art journal. I have some ephemera and pages made from water colour paper tucked in it. Clipped inside the back cover is an A6 size journal for planning my as-yet non-existent YouTube videos. I did have a map of England there before I got back. *eye roll*

Recently I added a pocket to the inside front cover by sewing on a piece of upholstery fabric. I have three templates and a grid pencil board/ruler in the pocket.

4.       An A6 lined journal with a detail from Van Gogh’s “Vase with Sunflowers” on it. That’s one of my very favourite paintings, has been since I was a teenager. Sylvan gave me the journal for my birthday. I use it as a personal journal to write a bit at the end of each day, if I remember, that is. I put HP sprocket photos, quick water colours, and bits and bobs in it. I have a number of small, lined journals like this to use once it’s filled.

 

5.       3.75 x 6.25 hardback 2020-2022 monthly calendar with lined note pages. About half of it is note pages, to be exact. I bought this strictly to carry in my purse so I wouldn’t schedule doctor visits or vet visits, etc. on the same day, and to keep track of other things. In the notes I wrote out the W-L records of all the Major League Baseball (MLB) teams in preparation for the 2020 season, little imagining there would be no season. Figures, I finally get back to fallowing my favourite sport and it’s canceled. *facepalm*

6.       A 5-Year Question a Day diary. Sylvan and I got these at Half-Price Books.

7.       A little soft-cover pocket-size, 2-year calendar I use for my RP characters.

8.       Habit Nest A5 “The Meditation Sidekick Journal” which is woefully behind.

9.       Soft-cover, A5 “Coloring Book of Shadows” by Amy Cesari. This was actually a 2019 one, but I barely used it, so I re-dated it for 2020, and still have barely used it. Not too late to pick it up again. Some of the images I’ve coloured I think will go in my BoS.

10.   A gardening journal (again, not up to date).

11.   A fitness journal that I haven’t used in forever, again, I need to start.

12.   A household binder, patterned after the Flylady’sControl Journal.

13.   A hardbound A5 notebook with graph ruling I’ve had for several years. It’s been a bujo, a place for brainstorming, plans, lists, notes on my book, etc.
14. A Celtic desk planner from like 2018? After I realised I was never going to use it as a planner, I write a quote for each day. Every month is a different theme, like art or ageing. 

15.   Not to mention various and sundry other little notebooks I’ve started and never finished over the years, my BoS, tarot and oracle card notebooks.

16.   I need to start a project planner to stay on top of all the things I need to finish.

17.   And finally, I’ve ordered a Hobonichi A6 Techo Original from JetPens and a beautiful cover from Etsy. It might well become the projects planner, who knows?

 

 

In other words, I, too, am a total planner/journal junkie.

ETA: I have a Day-Timer A5, spiral bound notebook I keep track of the family photo/letters project.

18....Watch out Sarra, here I come!!

¹Be careful, this shop is deadly; you’ll want ALL. THE. THINGS.  And if you get the washi bug, this is my favourite shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/GoatGirlMH?ref=ss_profile

²In case you’ve been under a rock https://zoom.us/  There are several alternatives, as well.

³Really about 23, as the Erin Condren “On the Go Folio” has something like 4 different journals in it.

⁴Techo means “planner”  (TEH-choh)

And the band played on...

America, well, right-wing America, has gotten like that spoiled frat boy who’s been told all of his life he’s “special” and now thinks it’s quite okay to be a dick. Left-wing American isn’t making me too happy at them moment, either. I’m looking at you, Berners.

The response to the Corona virus (covid-19) should not be political. Period. But it has ended up that way. If Trump (I refuse to call him Mr. let alone President) had stepped up in DECEMBER when intel was first handed to him, and appointed proper, intelligent, competent people to handle it, far few people would have died by now, there would have been less impact on the economy, and most likely, we’d be facing a shorter lock-down (which is being relaxed way too soon).

The response we got was denial, accusations of “fake news,” obfuscation. Bullshit in other words.

The people I am friends with and I do not trust a single word coming out of that man’s mouth. As the saying goes: Is he lying? Yes, his mouth is moving.

I will never understand the so-called intelligent, educated people, any Blacks, Hispanics, Gays, or women who support him, who think he’s doing things right—in any situation. I don’t get it. Have they all been duped by Fox News and Russian BS on Twitter and Facebook? I can only assume they have. They’ve all voted against their own self-interest and welfare. And uneducated white people in rural areas, they’ve done It, too. WTAF?

Part of the problem is Trump’s and the Senate GOP majority’s hatred of anything to do with President Obama (see what I did there?): anything and everything Obama put into motion, they have to destroy, sometimes because it affects their Big Business Buddies who give them money (not just in campaign contributions, I’m convinced), sometimes because they deny climate change, and sometimes just because Obama did it.

Fucking twatwaffles.

There are so many affronts to common sense, morality, and the very fabric of our country going on right now, it’s bloody scary. Some of the worst hotspots for the virus are in meat-packing plants. I don’t eat meat, but lots of people do, and there’s starting to be a shortage. Hell, Wendy’s, fucking Wendy’s, has run out of burgers in some places. Because restaurants and grocery stores are not ordering produce, dairy, and meat like they were, tons of perfectly good food is being plowed under, dumped, and animals just slaughtered. Meanwhile, tens of thousands line up at foodbanks every day…..

Bodies are piling up, funeral directors are pulling all the stops, doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are working around the clock. And dying, too. And yet…the almighty dollar reigns. This past Friday, things started opening up more.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

It’s a scary, scary time. And we have the worst possible moron in charge.

Ramblings of a home-bound dreamer

In a time of destruction, create something: a poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; one peaceful moment.                                                                       ~Maxine Hong Kingston

I don’t know much about Maxine Hong Kingston, but this quote seemed particularly apropos today.  If you’re reading this in the future or have been lost in the Canadian wilderness or far reaches of the Australian Outback, the Earth is under siege. From a virus. I’m sure there’s enough out there to tell you all about this virus, how it started, spread, and the various proper and disastrous governmental responses to it.  Some leaders got it, some didn’t until it was too late.

The USA was one of the latter. Again, search the archives for Donald J. Trump, the man who never should have run for president, let alone be president.  He is/was every bit as disastrous as I thought he would be. Worse, in fact.

But, that’s not the main topic of today’s post.

Well-meaning people ask each other ‘How are you holding up?”  I suppose the best answer would be “As well as can be expected.”  However, under the circumstances, that really is an inadequate response to a complicated, variable situation.  The answer depends on the time of day, how much media exposure you’ve had, whether you can find toilet paper, and your general outlook on life.

I tend to think of myself as a cynical optimist. I know, massive oxymoron. I’m optimistic that things will eventually get better, cynical in that, things will be shit before they get better and even though they get better, they won’t be what they were.

Confused yet?  Me, too. Those two feelings cause conflict in the mind and the conflict leads to worry and depression. Leaving all that aside for the moment, let’s back up a bit.

Back in October of 2018, I went to England for the first time in my life. It was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, to visit (a bigger lifelong dream is to live there, but barring winning the lotto, that’ll never happen >insert crying emoji here<).

I stayed with friends (G & T). I felt horrible because T gave up her bed for me; she ended up sleeping on the living room floor with a dreadful cold; I’m forever indebted to them! 

Not in order: I went to Stratford-upon-Avon where I kinda got lost and ended up coming home via Birmingham (look at a map, you’ll see why that’s an issue), Stonehenge (of course) from there traveled up to Stoke-on-Trent to meet another friend, an artist I follow on YT and Patreon. I went to a West End play with T and a movie premier with G, I spent an afternoon with another friend, visited the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, had fish and ships on Albion Beach, and went to the Tate Modern with G. Overall, I had a really good time and cried on the plane because I didn’t want to go home.

That was a teaser trip and I was determined to go back, so in September of 2019, I started making reservations. Air, hotel, side trip to Dublin (another dream). All set.

Enter COVID-19 December 2019.

See the next post for more.

Synopsis: Man of Steel

Man of Steel

Asparagus

Everything is penis-shaped on Krypton

Kal-El is a cat

Let’s destroy Smallville

There goes Manhattan, or Metropolis as it known.

The ultimate WWF knock-down: two super powers duking it out in catsuits

Okay, you’ve gone too far, fucking up the ISS and Grand Central.  Boys….shall we get a ruler?

Ooh, what a disguise.  *eyeroll*

B+ great cast, some really good acting, weak on the plot. Everything just goes back to normal?? After half of Metropolis is destroyed and likely thousands of people killed? Who's gonna pay for all of this? 

Overwhelmed by Ennui

12^th December 2019

Pivotal date.

The idiots who can’t count are saying tonight’s the last full moon of the decade. I have to wonder what kind of arithmetic their schools taught. <>

The election in the UK. Those of us with hearts are praying the Tories are ousted. We’ll see. There’s an election news blackout until the polls close at 10PM GMT. Frankly the US should do the same.

19 days until 2020. That just sounds unreal to me, a child of the 50s and 60s. 2020. We should have shuttles to mars and flying cars by now, and world peace and equality, right?  HA! Instead we have ignorant, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, corrupt sexual offenders as leaders in at least two of the biggest economies in the world and their sycophants thinking it’s okay to act accordingly with impunity.

43 years since my dad died. The single worst day of my life. For weeks I just wanted to die, too.

It seems it’s a watershed moment for me. I’ve had wake-up calls before, usually I just go back to sleep. Somehow, today seems different. To put it in context, I’ve lived with depression probably since high school. For long periods of time, it didn’t seem to bother me, or at least I didn’t think it did. I’ve taken bupropion (trade name Wellbutrin) for years for ADHD, but it also helped with the depression.  (I’d tried Zoloft, which I don’t recommend unless you are really into frustrating sex; and Lexapro, which did away with the depression, but also any feelings at all. Grand! I’m no longer depressed, but I don’t give a flying fuck about anything. Not my cuppa.)

This isn’t any sort of oh-my-god-epiphany-wake-up-call, one that is supposed to change my life (I’ve had those before and they were red herrings). Rather it’s quite the opposite. In the past, I’ve posted cheery, upbeat things like “I’m making progress!”  “Imma get this shit done now.”  Etc. etc.

Today, in the wake of what seems a disastrous—at this writing—election in the UK, keeping the bloody Tories in power and putting the NHS in dire danger (among other things), I look at my house and me and realise I’m overwhelmed. Not just by the pile of crap, but by the enormity of the task. By the enormity of my fuck-all mood. I literally want to do nothing but go back to bed.

Overwhelmed by ennui. And dustbunnies.