Apr
29
Stirred, Not Shaken
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We had an earthquake the other morning. That’s not quite right. “We had an earthquake” sounds like “We rented 13 Going on 30″. Rather, the crust of the planet itself trembled several hundred miles away and we had very little to do with it at all.
So, we had an earthquake the other morning. My wife and I were lying in bed in those quiet few minutes after the alarm sounds. It was about twenty-five minutes of six. We do this every day, I think. The alarm sounds — a puny watch alarm, actually, as we have avoided a real alarm since the baby — and we lie there for a few minutes in silence. Sometimes we are both asleep, sometimes awake, mostly somewhere in between. It’s an odd in-between time as we move from the luxury of rest into the real world.
Even the dogs don’t want to get up.
But this particular morning, I felt the bed shaking. I tried to disregard it. This is Ohio. Maybe I was just having a seizure. Or maybe it was windy. But the slow back and forth rhythm became undeniable. An antique lamp on the dresser began to rattle the way old glass things do, reminding us that even ignored things are fragile.
Earthquake, I thought. And I have to admit the idea excited me a bit. It is Ohio, after all. But then I considered that the tremble might have been the remnant of California falling into the ocean. I found this a little less exciting. I tried to think about how humbling such an event is. How we are at the mercy of Big Things like tectonic plates and wandering comets. Then it was time to get up.
The earthquake was a five-point-nothing in Illinois, but the local news was geeked up. They were on the phone (*live*) with a witness who had felt the ground shake in Kentucky. The witness seemed a unimpressed by the whole event, much to the chagrin of the anchor. As he threw us to commercial, the anchor said after the break we would hear the forecast “for the city that was just rocked by an earthquake!” I guess that’s why he’s still the morning anchor. That and his giant ears.
So much for humility and awe at the universe.
And that’s my Cincinnati earthquake story.
Apr
27
The Daily Notebook
Filed Under Organization | Leave a Comment
Daily and recurring preoccupation: The all around book
I’ve slipped back into keeping a journal. I had a lot of arguments for quitting with the journal business. I was very convincing. But I was really just talking myself into something. My biggest gripe had been that the journal business was preventing me from writing anything useful. Turns out, I can come up with any number of excuses to avoid writing anything useful.
When it comes down to it, I enjoy keeping a journal. So I’m back. Writing, musing, recording the nuances of life I will find hilariously entertaining in ten years. Good stuff might go to the site. Other stuff just hangs there. The point is to keep my head working, creating. Maybe someday I’ll write something serious. Or maybe not.
Topic two involves the little daily notebook I carry around for lists and notes. For a long time, I held to a small moleskine notebook. But a couple of weeks ago I hit a singularity of sorts: 1) I filled up the book, 2) I got a job and would be spending considerably less time dicking around in front of my computer, and 3) I slipped into some kind of luddite/minimalist mode.
I’ve always felt more than a little guilt around a Franklin Covey binder in my desk. I’d paid way too much for it in 2004 and only used it for a short time. Perfect opportunity to revive it, no?
But the size is all wrong. And I am becoming increasingly preoccupied with keeping a manual calendar synced with my computer. How very 1998. And where is the line between work and personal lists, anyway?
I’ve sickened myself. This is ridiculous, bordering on madness. I hesitate to wonder what lies at the root of my preoccupation with personal organization. A desire to control a world out of control? A need to mark incremental progress in an unchangeable world? I think I’ll stop carrying a book.
How’s that for minimalism? How’s that for control?
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