sticky notes

is there ANYTHING better these days than a hand written note?  of all the things I'm grateful for in my illustrious almost 17 years of marriage, id have to say the fact that kris leaves me a note almost every morning is near the top of the list.  that its usually stuck to my coffee cup makes me so happy every morning, i can't even tell you!! its such a thoughtful thing, that i know is often inconvenient -but he does it anyway because he knows how much it means to me.    it's funny because i know my friends are tired of hearing me say "if one more person tells me how nice kris is and how lucky i am to be married to him, i'm going to physically hurt them".....but the reality is, he IS REALLY NICE and i AM LUCKY to have him.

so this one is for you, kb :) ok, not entirely, but you got your space :)  and i do truly appreciate you.  but getting back to the original topic, i LOVE paper!!  yes, i jumped on the technology bandwagon and have been known to lavish real love on my blackberry/droid/iphone.....i love love love it...except when i don't!!  which is whenever i can't get something to work, or work quickly enough, or work the way i want it!  HA so while i have everything in my life in a google calendar, i still have a paper calendar in my bag.  nine times out of ten if you email me something i need to remember, or do, i'm printing it out.  i have a stack of paper with me AT ALL TIMES.  i love my ereader, but i still buy a book almost every week.  its not that  i am distrustful of technology, its that i love to hold something in my hands....having whatever it is ON PAPER, somehow makes it more real, and more solid.  how many of us have a gazillion pictures on a hard drive somewhere? or as in our case, several hard drives scattered around the house.  its a real effort for me to print pictures, when that is something i LOVED to do. i couldn't wait to get my film developed and make things with my pictures......i admire that colleen still makes the time to do that.....once i stopped HAVING to print my pictures, i just stopped doing it.....unless i had a reason.  i'll admit that i can still muster up a cool idea now that then, but more often than not, my pics stay on my phone - i text them or Facebook them so that i can share them - which is very cool.....but i still miss holding them.  every year when school pictures come out, we make a big production of going thru every year in the frame behind the new picture - its a tradition....and a tactile reminder of how the boys have grown.  in some ways, we document so much more today, but its often so much less sentimental.....or maybe its just me!

my biggest technology pet peeve (if you are interested) is the GPS!!  i mean, in theory its awesome, right?  but somehow we follow a stupid gps when we ALREADY KNOW HOW TO GET WHERE WE ARE GOING!! and we are so reliant on these things, that no one knows how to give directions anymore -not that anyone would stop and ask or anything....but STILL!!  i have a really good sense of direction and i was fine before i started using my stupid WAZE app....i get lost more now because i feel like i should use it, and then i follow the stupid blue line even though i'm questioning it while i'm doing it!!  UGH.....again, maybe this is just my issue, but it makes me crazy....and i still can't stop myself!  

now my dad is seriously the last technology holdout....he only has a phone because i bought it for him....no computer, no email, no gps, no online banking, no NUTHIN!  and of course he always has something witty to say when my computer, phone, gps makes me crazy.  he still insists on carrying a paper map with him whenever he is going somewhere new - and oddly enough he never gets lost  - go figure.  now i know that being "green" is the wave of the future - i'm just not that good at it.  i mean i recycle, sure - but darn it i think my dad has a point.....in a world so dependent on the internet, we are not really prepared for a time without it!  if our internet goes out for more than half an hour, it feels like the world is coming to an end....or if we don't have cel service......its mass chaos.  and thru all of that, there's my pop - happy as a clam and oblivious to it all, because he still reads his newspaper, and watches regular tv and carries a paper map!!  now i'm not saying thats the way to go, but i'm saying HE does it and he's fine!!  i think we all think (especially in my house) that without technology, society would cease to exist!!  it wouldn't - it just would slow down some - and maybe that's not so bad.

i know, i know, i got really off message but the point is that while i communicate really well with my friends, and family by text -its somehow just not the same as a note.  writing a note these days means i took time out of my life and thought about you - and that i want you to have this little piece of me that you can carry around with you - i feel like sticky notes today are the equivalent of the lunch napkin note.....a little embarrassing maybe but a sure sign that someone loves you. so i'm going to try to remember to take more time to write a note, or send a card -not just a text or an email.  i need to jump off the technology bandwagon every so often and just take a minute to breathe, and to appreciate....

“Today is a most unusual day, because we have never lived it before; we will never live it again; it is the only day we have.

Today can be a healthy unusual day for you -- and for others -- if you take time to give someone a smile . . . to express a word of kindness . . . to lend a helping hand to someone in need . . . to write a note of gratitude . . . to give a word of encouragement to someone who is temporarily overcome with problems . . . to share a portion of your material possessions with others.” - william arthur ward


next step in living with intention.....invest in some sticky notes :)