My Calendar Obsession.....

Even in this digital age, I find myself clinging to my paper calendar. Don't get me wrong....I have an electronic calendar. Two of them, in fact. And it was a happy day when I learned how to sync them. My school calendar on Outlook syncs with my Google calendar, and I get an email first thing every morning (at 4:37 AM to be exact) that lets me know of any events upcoming for that day. If you haven't tried Google's calendar feature yet, YOU SHOULD. You can choose what holidays to display, and you can choose professional and college teams whose schedules you would like to appear on your digital calendar. You can go overboard with that, as I'm SURE you wouldn't have predicted I would do. By the time I had it notify me of games played by the  Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions, Atlanta Braves, Gwinnett Braves, and the Georgia Bulldogs, I had no idea whose birthday was when, because my calendar was chock full of sports schedules.

The older I get, the more I rely on such things. I have people's birthdays on my calendar. A couple of days BEFORE their birthdays, I get reminders to mail their cards. It's a tragic thing.

Because I am a teacher, I have bought academic year calendars for the past few decades. I have bought many different styles, and some years I have gone the cheap route and just used the ones that our local bank provided to every teacher in the district. That was before said bank had officers who invested people's money not very wisely, and now the bank goes by a different name. 

This one is my favorite, though. You can't tell it, but it has a hard back, so the cover doesn't curl or tear even with repeated misuse and abuse. In the back are lots of blank pages for notes (I rarely use them, and if I do use them I forget to look back there for whatever I took notes on), and TWO clear pockets that I use as a portable filing cabinet. In it are random items such as a mystery letter I found in my step-father's possessions, this year's school calendar (because it's ultra-important to know when the holidays are), NEXT year's school calendar (even more important, to note my last day of teaching EVER), a cool poem from New Yorker Magazine, a random 6-digit code or confirmation or combination, a couple of pay stubs.

When I get a brand-new calendar, the first thing I do is go through and write everyone's birthday in. I always hesitate when I get to mine. Do I write my own birthday in my calendar, knowing I don't really need to remind myself of it? Or do I leave it blank and pretend it bothers me, when it really doesn't? 

The next thing I do, because I get my calendar in July right before school starts, is write (in red) the dates of UGA football games. As soon as the gymnastics schedule comes out, I write those in (also in red, of course).

Other things are sometimes color-coded, sometimes not. I write in approaching deadlines, and as you can see if you click on the picture above, sometimes I write a deadline on a sticky note and put it on the appropriate date. No, I'm not sure why either. It seemed the right thing to do at that particular time.

At this time of year, my calendar pages start filling up with bicycle rides. It's impossible to do all of them, but I pencil them in anyway, then I check with Katydid and Rozmo to see which ones they can do. I write in Hubby's golf trips even if I'm not going with him, and I also keep track of his doctor's appointments. 

My calendar is usually open on my desk, but I'm finding here lately that it's usually turned to the NEXT month, not the current one. I'm a planner by nature, so I am always looking ahead and seeing how events line up (or don't) in my calendar. It's why I email Katydid and Frogger Blogger and irritate the crap out of them asking them questions about events that are MONTHS away.

I think my paper calendar is sort of a security blanket. I take it with me to meetings, even if I know there is nothing to schedule, because it makes me feel better. And if it's a boring meeting, I can always doodle on the blank pages in the back. Maybe that's why they are there.