Reflections at the halfway(ish) point

Kara, our twelfth recipient, has just sent the notebook out into the world. So, we're about halfway through the list of conspirators. (Wow, I'm REALLY going to need to buy more red hair dye.)

We're adding a conspirator. My cubemate, Danielle (who got me to participate in Operation Flowers), kept saying, "Next time you do that, I want to do it." I don't know that I will ever be able to pull something like this off again, so I figured we may as well just add her to the list. It worked out well, because I have to rearrange the later part of the list anyway, in order to get the notebook to Ben for his wedding. (This has become more an obsession than a mission for me, and I WILL make it happen.)

Just a short while ago, I emailed most of the derby-related conspirators (all the ones who will be working our bout the day of the wedding) and asked if we could coordinate a picture of all of us with the notebook. Since I'll be wearing my fancy red dress, it just seemed like a good time to be photographed with the notebook. And since SO MANY of the conspirators will be in one place AT THE SAME TIME, it seemed like a good thing to try to do. Bout days are busy and can be crazy and it's no small thing to take a minute out of whatever you've got planned to pose for some silly picture for some silly friend who has very weird ideas. But, it's looking like we might be able to pull it off, and that's just awesome.

I was home visiting family this weekend, and I realized something obvious that never quite sunk in before: Pictures are really important to me. (If you've ever been in my apartment or seen my cubicle at work, you already know this, I'm sure.) I arrived at my grandma's on the fourth anniversary of my grandpa's death and I noticed how she has all these pictures scattered around her house that I'd had printed and framed for him when he went into the nursing home shortly before he died -- the only thing I could think to comfort someone who was slowly losing all his memories was to give him hard copies of those memories.

In a lot of ways, that's what this notebook is going to be.

Halfway through the notebook's journey, I wonder if anyone has noticed my mom's recipe for chocolate chip cookies and tried making them. I was all about trying to put something for each sense -- except smell; screw smell; I am living proof that you can have a full and happy life with little to no sense of smell, thank you very much; plus, it's hard to figure out how to represent smell in a notebook -- there was a collage for sight, a soundtrack for hearing, an origami butterfly for touch, and mom's cookie recipe for taste. If no one has noticed (or tried) the cookie recipe, I do hope that someone does before the end. Make cookies for strangers or people you love (or people you hate) and write about it in the notebook. I dare you.

Red Notebook in Desert Paradise

I spent 4 days with The Notebook. I think that I cried a little inside when it was time to mail it off, parting with awesomeness isn't easy.

I took The Notebook on a date with me to the coffee shop to do my taxes and work on awesomeness. I ended up spending most of my time on taxes, listing to others in the coffee shop (two writers having a writers night, Graceless/Tara, it made me think of you the whole evening). I wondered, what awesomeness could I add to the book... what would I do to make the world suck less. I had gotten the notebook on Monday evening and Tuesday evening I was planning on going to orientation to volunteer at the local Children's Hospital, but got lost and couldn't make it. Somehow it kinda felt like I was failing at removing some suck from life. I quickly reminded myself that it happens once a month and that making myself feel sucky goes against The Notebook project - so I'll just go next month and this time I'll take directions with me!

It was honestly Thursday before I really spend time looking at The Notebook, I added some awesome in my own way. It was Thursday evening before I hit on my way to reduce world suck - postcards!!!! Not just any postcards mind you, but pictures that I've taken and written on. While I did NOT complete my tasks before I mailed The Notebook, I figure that like The Notebook project, my make-the-world-suck-less project will continue. 

And also on the way home after mailing The Notebook, I stopped and picked some of this up to ease the parting pains:

I mean, why not join in the dye fun!

And lastly, Sidd the Guinea Pig wanted in on the fun (and well everyone likes cute animal pictures, right?).

Conspiring to Make the World Suck Less

Red Notebook? More like Red Binder!

Hi folks!  In case you haven't met me, I'm Emer.  Rhymes with lemur, femur, beamer, screamer, steamer.  I am a co-worker and proud partner in awesome of Graceless.  She helped dye the back of my hair red on my 30th birthday in January in solidarity of this project (gee, I should've returned the favor on her birthday).

I was delighted to arrive home from a day of snowboarding (and falling) to see a package in my mail.  I mean, who doesn't get excited to receive things in the mail that aren't advert fliers or credit card offers?

Don't Forget to Appreciate Awesome

How awesome is it that a group of people, some of whom don't know each other, can come together to work on a fabuous project like this one? The conglomeration of creativity from all these individuals is a pretty amazing thing. When I received the notebook, my thoughts ran to how we so often miss the awesomeness in everyday life in the midst of our busy schedules. These musings inspired my contribution to the notebook as I sat on a lawn near my workplace on a beautiful, unusually warm early spring day.

To those conspirators who are still waiting to participate, have fun, use your imagination, and revel in the awesomeness.

Back in Action

Email I just sent to all the conspirators who have yet to do their part with the notebook:

You may have noticed that the Red Notebook Conspiracy ground to a halt for about a month, but that's all over now, because the notebook is now in the wily hands of the best derby wife in all of derbydom.

Let's not dwell on the notebook's lengthy pause and just focus on the fact that now you have three objectives:
1. Have fun
2. Decrease world suck in some way
3. Get the notebook to Ben by May 5 -- it has to go to Arizona and to two places in New York, but if everyone between Rehab and Ben takes less than 5 days (including mail time to the next person), then we should be able to do this

Go forth and make magic, lovelies. (Just be kinda quick about it, if you can.)

Notebook?

Where is it? The person last in possession is not talking...to me, at least. I thought that maybe there was a lesson in patience aimed for Graceless created by the U.S. Postal Service, but now I'm beginning to think that the lesson forming is mine.

I knew what I was going to put in the notebook within 24 hours after being invited as a co-conspirator. I have it all prepared and just need to plop it strategically inside. Biding my time has been difficult. The anticipation has heightened since I heard it was on its way to me...last Friday. Sigh. I do not want to give my wife a heart attack, but it might be gone. If the notebook has not resurfaced by mid-week next, I am buying an new one and starting the chain all over. Perhaps I was always meant to be number one...

Love you, wife! Keep breathing! See you tomorrow.