How many little pieces of paper do you have in your pocket or purse?
@peaceful (3294)
United States
August 29, 2007 10:41am CST
It all starts with a list of some kind, usually for shopping, maybe a couple of FLYNS ( Freaking Little Yellow Notes) and then some reciepts from your daily activities...
The next thing you know, you have a pocketful of little pieces of paper- tons of stuff that you have to navigate around to get to just the one piece that you need at the moment! This, of course, is depending on weather that particular piece of paper hasn't somehow managed to migrate or escape into the pile of papers that if now living and growing in your home...
I know that I've been guilty of keeping these things forever, and when I go to clean... the pile of notes/scrap just gets moved to somewhere else in the place!
I find it the oddest, quirkiest thing- that most of us have pretty good memories- what with the computer use and all... we can remember passwords, website addresses, usernames/numbers- html, and all kind if tech-stuff... but we still somehow wind up with pockets of stuff written on paper, and it can make for some pretty ungainly moments...
If someone asks you out of the blue for your recommendation about something or other, and you have to go digging into your purse or pocket- pulling out maybe 10- 20 pieces of paper, people are apt to think that you are weird... yet I'm willing to bet that they do much the same- when nobody seems to be looking, that is...
I'll bet that you've even divised you own personal shorthand, for all kinds of stuff, too!
That is, if somebody else took a look, they would be flabbergasted by your scribble- and again, I'll bet that they do the same...
Human memory, in some respects, can be almost like a machine, but it's a machine unlike no other- our memories are like Living Entities- creative and complex enough to naturally connect us to the Earth, and all species...
-and yet simple enough to draw, scribble and scratch-on pieces of paper, bark, sand and stone(harder to carry around)- just like our ancestors did.
You can choose from a huge array of great "list making software" like Remember The Milk:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com
But it's just not the same as finding a scrap of paper from several years back, maybe with your shopping list... and the name and number of your lover or best friend, from the very first time that you met...
Whole works of Art have suddenly sprung to Life from these pieces of paper... companies built, awards won- songs, movies and such...
These days, this little "trashy" habit of ours, seems so out of place- paperless offices, PDA's, cellphones that can run our Lives... but I'm betting that my next masterpiece is in that pile of paper that keep moving around the house, and I am getting rid of some of it, but slowly... savoring some of the scraps of my Life, and enjoying (or cringing) the simple act of rembering Me!
4 people like this
8 responses
@o1happyday (16)
• United States
30 Aug 07
You've made me feel so much better about all the little papers that have accumulated in my purse and check book. I used to feel a little ashamed thinking my purse was full of trash whenever I would clean it, but I don't think of it as trash anymore. I could have a masterpiece in there.
1 person likes this
@shambuca (2524)
• United States
29 Aug 07
LOL--- there you go again reading my mind...just last night i was suppose to clean out my pocketbook and I was so tired by 10:00 I decided to put it off till today...LOL
If you saw all the papers and crap in my pocketbook you would really laugh!!!!
@peaceful (3294)
• United States
29 Aug 07
My camera bag would be an anthopologist's treasure! LOL! :) Image notes and settings, lens paper, soy sauce packets, salt and pepper, pens that don't work, sewing kit, wallet full of defunct business cards, pencil stubs, insect repellent spray, empty eye drop bottle... this is crazy! :) LOL!
1 person likes this
@shambuca (2524)
• United States
29 Aug 07
With those kind of things I make a scrap book.....no in my pocketbook- i have strange things like a packet of soy sauce in case i'm stranded somewhere without it, my neighbors mail(that I keep meaning to put in their mail box)- lottery tickets from 2 years ago, handy wipes that are probably dried up....etc... you get the idea. These are things I carry with me everyday and never use...no wonder my shoulder hurts...LOL
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
31 Aug 07
Peaceful, it's obviously a matter of destiny that you feel and think and act this way, for I am the same. Not once, but many times I have found a diary type page of writing tucked inside a book I read years, nay aeons ago, or a buisness card or even a diary from some year, incomplete of course. I must admit, I've done a lot of cringing in my time as I find these masterpieces of prose.
Yours might be little pieces of paper but mine are veritable posters, the one's written while I was ever so slightly inebriated are blitheringly obvious.
I'm laughing now because I've suddenly realised there are bits of me (mind/soul) all over the ruddy house....lol.
@peaceful (3294)
• United States
31 Aug 07
Dearest, Sister...
There is an exquisitely colorful and varied palette of emotional self-portraitures being displayed to you by You. It's kind of a gift, really, to see this stuff and realize that you are more that just what you think... you really are a brilliant combo of lights and darks, errors and master-strokes, swirls and curly-ques... how bland Life can be for those who only think of themselve as society's canvas-
Those little notes and inspirations, tell us that we are anything but that...
Enjoy the absolute freedom of digging through "The Stuff Of You", it can be fun, frightening or confusing, but of you really look closely... it can't possibly be boring...
Have an excellent evening, and Good On Ya! :)
@kelly60 (4547)
• United States
29 Aug 07
Are you trying to tell me that I'm not the only one who does this? My kids tease me about it all of the time because every time I reach in, out comes a handful of receipts. I don't know why they keep piling up. I just never seem to take the time to sort through them. My son went through a big stack of them and sorted them for me a while back and found nothing that needed saved. I'm certain though that if I had thrown them away there would have been something of value buried deep within the pile.
By the way, I have jotted down the web address you listed above. I hope that I can find it later when I have time to check it out :P
@peaceful (3294)
• United States
29 Aug 07
Resourceful people, such as yourself, Kelly60, all seem to have this trait...
It was a junior high school memory that got me to thinking about this- one of my history teachers used to keep hundreds of scraps of paper in all of his pockets- no exaggeration... hundreds!
He always had a piece of paper with the answers written on it, just like a walking reference library! LOL! :)
@kelly60 (4547)
• United States
29 Aug 07
It always seems that every time I cleaned out my purse, I needed whatever I took out and I don't like being caught off guard. I remember attending a baby shower one time where they played a game. They named different items and the first person who came up with that item got a prize. I got nearly all of them because I had almost anything you could think of in my purse :P
@peaceful (3294)
• United States
29 Aug 07
That same thing has happened to me at Quizzo bar games... some unusual questions have popped up, and for some reason, I made notes of the answers and committed them to memory...
Some people look at me like I'm crazy when I answer an off the wall query and win the game! LOL :)
@sarwono_mandiri (67)
• Indonesia
30 Aug 07
In my pocket, i think i have very much..like game, photo or the others..if you have much like that maybe you can give me and me too.
so don't worry about your problem, i think i can help you
@o1happyday (16)
• United States
30 Aug 07
You've made me feel so much better about all the little papers that have accumulated in my purse and check book. I used to feel a little ashamed thinking my purse was full of trash whenever I would clean it, but I don't think of it as trash anymore. I could have a masterpiece in there.
@pismeof (855)
• United States
29 Aug 07
I have little pieces of paper in my wallet. Phone number here,
Address there and don't forget the coupon for Mcdonalds or Dunkin'Donuts plus you have that freebie ticket to rent a video.
Clippings from the local Newspaper about the latest vaccine location for the upcoming Flu season.
There's only one problem that I find with all these little reminders that one has in their Wallet.We tend to forget to remember.:)
@KATRINKA (1624)
• United States
30 Aug 07
I don't know how you find these great sites. Thanks for the link. But I hate to say it, I'm happy hauling around my million little pieces of paper in my too-deep bag I carry daily. I'm the worst when it comes to receipts. I only use a debit card, but I don't always write everything in my register immediately. I have special pockets in my wallet for my receipts. Usually, every two weeks I add up my receipts and balance my checkbook. And there's a lot of gnashing of teeth and crying as I do it. I also have a million post-its with friends' phone numbers, email, and web addresses. I always mean to add the information to my cell phone or to my computer, but I always get sidetracked by another little piece of paper. And don't mention pay stubs. I must have 20 in my bag. How long are you supposed to keep them, anyway? And of course, I probably have a month's worth of grocery lists hiding in that mess, that is, if they haven't gone through the wash because I forget to take them out of my pocket.
