Michael Beirut on his working life in notebooks. I have a hit or miss relationship with notebooks. I really want to use them. I feel like I should use them more. I’m happy to lust after buttery Moleskin covers. I tried earnestly to log our trip to Italy last year with mixed results. I think it’s my mean streak of neatness that keeps me from fully committing. That perfectly glassy white page screams to be left alone and not debased with another of my juvenile umbrella drawings or stick figure death matches.

Every once in awhile we will stumble across college notebooks in the basement and Chelle will gasp in equal parts horror and amazement at some of my more anal note taking displays. But since moving into the workforce, I’ve broken up with more notebooks than I’ve actually finished. There will be large gaps in the pages between notes. I just can’t make it stick. Right now the battered green spiral notebook on my desk is gathering dust. Maybe we’ll hook up again the spring.