Today I did a project that I've been meaning to do for a looooooong time. I took all my old floppy disks to Ben's office to one of the last computers I know of with a floppy disk drive to print out some archaic journaling from 10+ years ago before they were lost forever. Most of my journaling over the years has been handwritten but every once in a while I'd get in the mood to type it instead. I knew I had several random journal files on these disks and my goal was to save them to a CD as well as print them out. These are journals from college and a little beyond with dates ranging randomly from 1996-1999. As I glanced through some of my ramblings I began to wonder why exactly I wanted to salvage these. It can be a little scary to peek into your mind of 10 years previous. I hope, I hope, I hope that I've changed just a little. Maybe I'll be saying the same thing in 10 years as I read back on my current journals. It was fun to glance back on some of the "good old days" of my 20's but I will just tuck these away for now until I can fully enjoy them without cringing.
Having said that, I did run across one totally random file that wasn't really a journal entry (there was no date indicated) but that totally made me laugh. I was obviously sick when I wrote this so I can blame that for the weirdness. You may not find it funny at all and I can totally understand that. I mostly thought my family would enjoy some of the little "sketches" of our siblings.
Fever’s inspiration
red bird, black squirrel, too fluffy cat in window, little collar white face, gray fur-looks stuffed like a toy but it cocks its head. does it want the bird? or the fresh morning air? I want to stay in my car w/ the music. I can sing. but only alone.
this woman, she’s got to be up to something. slys out of her house at 5 to 8. once tall, now stooped thin old lady. looks both ways as she pulls the scarf over her head securing below her chin. her ancient brown vinyl hand bag clutched against her. it looks flat and empty but obviously looks can be deceiving. she hurries across the road. I want to sneak into her apt. if it is her own apt. that she’s coming out of. maybe she’s just made a trade off. maybe she’s in disguise.
I odn’t know if I can handle this today. I feel like I’m living in a thick mental fog. everything is vague and I’m about to run off the road at any minute. I’d much rather be home watching videos.
bubble balloon, helium, pot. head on a string. what a beautiful thing. mind in jar. can’t get very far.
what I would do for love:
surrender my cold oatmeal.
soak in the morning sun
give up my sock with a hole in the heel.
take the last cookie.
win the lottery, or just a small fry
be caller number 9
get the second one for half off
find a lucky penny
watch my favorite movie
sell my rusted bike
pick my neighbor’s flowers
pinch my little sister
cancel my dentist appointment
sleep in on a cold snowy day
miss work “ “
jump in the leaves
crash the party
tp houses in the middle of the night
laugh
listen to a boring joke
trim my fingernails
no no, I’d wear the sock with the hole in the heel.
I’d drink the warm mushy milk at the end of a bowl of cereal.
resist the temptation to pick a scab
wear orange lipstick with a pink shirt
be a gleek target
play butts up
play on an out of tune piano
Some families go to Disneyland—we go to Wal-Mart: A Peek in the Windows of Mulberry Manor
Jenny on the tailwind exercise bike sitting in the dining room waiting to be taken to the garage. head resting forward on the handle bars.
“c’mon jenny, get upstairs and get dressed.”
slumps of the bike, gathers blanket around her shoulders and slides across the floor in her stocking feet.
“do you want cake or a cookie in your lunch?”
“I don’t care” she mumbles
“well I don’t either”
“Mom, I think Cha-Cha is throwing up again.”
“hmm…maybe the Humane Society will take him today. Maybe I’ll see if I can drop him off after I go to Goodwill to look for another basket.”
“You can’t get rid of him, you meanie. How would you like to be taken away from your home?”
“I’d like it just fine. Maybe then I could get some peace and quiet.”
emily snatches up cha-cha and gives him some kitty treats while mom gets the paper towels and wipes up the cat vomit.
“I’m going to need your help bringing the trampoline inside.”
“What?!”“We may have to take the wall down temporarily but I bet we could get it back up before your father gets home. then we could have a real play room. we could store all the games underneath the trampoline so they’d be out of the way but still accessible.”
“c’mon kevin we’re going to be late for seminary.”
“Just a second, I’m perfecting my plans to build a medieval catapult for my Eagle Scout project. I’m then going to use it to catapult myself to Utah where I can do home study all the way through college.”
“no, we gotta go now. I’ll let you drive.”
Zooooooooooooooom!!
“whoa, where’s kevin?”
at the end of the driveway—hurry up becky, he’s pulling out!
“Keeeeeevin! Waaaaaaaaaaait for meeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“jenny, you can pick one of these cookies from the plate to take in your lunch today.”
“Where’d we get all these?”
“They’re left over from the ward Christmas party last night.”
“oooooooooh. hmmmmmmmm.”
Jenny leans over the plate with a contemplative look. She puts her finger to her lip and looks harder.
“Hmmmmmmmmm.”
Suddenly she hops down from the bench.
“You decided already?”
“No” she says as she runs towards the living room. “I have to get Megan for this.”
having a smoker laugh really hard right in front of my face is not my favorite thing.
4 comments:
Amy that was so fun to read! Sometimes I like reading through my old journals and sometimes I laugh and sometimes I shake my head at the dumb but funny things I've done. Thanks for sharing.
Ditto to what Emily said. That was some great stream of consciousness writing you had going on.
Reading that was traveling back in time to a day in the life at Mulberry Manor. It was so real I could even hear the semi's driving by and smell the house. I laughed and laughed at the perfect images captured: the art of words is definitely one of your specialties.
--Nancy
I wondered where you found a computer for your floppys. I have lots of messy written journals. I like to look back and see a difference. But i haven't looked in a while.
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