Welcome to the Misadventures of Widowhood blog!

Welcome to my World---Woman, widow, senior citizen seeking to live out my days with a sense of whimsy as I search for inner peace and friendships. Jeez, that sounds like a profile on a dating app and I have zero interest in them, having lost my soul mate of 42 years. Life was good until it wasn't when my husband had a massive stroke and I spent the next 12 1/2 years as his caregiver. This blog has documented the pain and heartache of loss, my dark humor, my sweetest memories and, yes, even my pity parties and finally, moving past it all. And now I’m ready for a new start, in a new location---a continuum care campus in West Michigan, U.S.A. Some people say I have a quirky sense of humor that shows up from time to time in this blog. Others say I make some keen observations about life and growing older. Stick around, read a while. I'm sure we'll have things in common. Your comments are welcome and encouraged. Jean

Saturday, June 19, 2021

My Life on Post-it Notes


Note: This post was written and scheduled to go live earlier this week but it got bumped back to make room for the computer woes post. I still haven't had time to deal with that fly in my soup and the laptop I'm working on is too old to use as a landing place for my lost photos and documents that should be safety up in a cloud named Carbonite. Hopefully, next week I'll get at it.

Moving on: I'm a huge fan of Post-it Notes. One wall of my computer wardrobe is filled with the colorful little scraps of paper and I have a tin box filled with them as well. Or I should say one wall was filled with them. Everyday I've been working at dismantling bits of my office space inside the wardrobe and taking down my Post-it Notes is part of the process. Everything in the wardrobe is gone, now but the computer itself as it waits for help to move the wardrobe out of the kitchen. By the way, I've tried the Sticky Notes app to keep the clutter at bay and digitalized but I'm a visual person and it just isn't the same.

Over the years I’ve gotten militant about putting quotation marks around stuff I write on Post-it Notes that are sentences I’ve copied out of a book or heard on TV or in a song, so if I ever use that quote I can properly credit the line. I would hate it if someone plagiarized me and I wouldn’t want to accidentally take credit for someone else’s note-worthy thoughts. I often jot down my own phrases or sentences as well so the quotation marks are necessary on other people's words. Once in a great while I’ve found an unquoted phrase on a note and think that it couldn't have come from my brain. So I’ll do a google search to no avail which means, apparently, I do come up with a pleasing string of words from time to time. In past year, though, I’ve started adding “by me” to bits and pieces I think are Post-it Note worthy. I’m old and I need to learn that I don’t have the time to retrace my steps when if I did something thorough the first time I’d save a lot of head scratching and asking myself, Did or didn’t I write this?

A small orange note I’m looking at right now just says, “nuh-uh” while a larger blue note says, “Treasures of Darkness.” I know why I wrote the first one. I often want to use words like that when I write but I have no clue how to spell them or to get Alexa to do it for me. (She hates me and the way I pronounce stuff.) The “Treasures of Darkness” note I had to google to figure out that it was a book title of a book I actually liked and went on to read the entire series minus the one due out in December. Apparently, when I wrote the note I wanted to be sure not to forget about the author’s upcoming book which I did forget and I’ve vowed---yet again---to make the Post-it Notes I jot down a little clearer so I don’t have to waste time googling why I wrote them in the first place. (That last sentence is messy and murky but I assure you, it will makes sense if you read it over again.) And apparently, I like the word ‘apparently’ today because this is the fourth time I’ve used it.

Moving along: On a tiny yellow Post-it Note I wrote, “Fissured Tongue, 5% of Americans.” Yup, you get the door prize if you guessed that I have a fissured tongue which I found out in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and I obsessed that it was a symptom of some dreaded disease I’d picked from reading a book set on another planet. Nope, it’s not but I did start brushing my tongue after that night because those ridges and valleys can harbor a host of yucky stuff. But I’m comforted by the fact that my dentist checks for mouth cancer twice a year. I’m not suggesting that a fissured tongue has anything to do with cancer. It doesn’t. However, I figured if the dentist found anything else worth mentioning---like my fissured tongue---she'd speak up about it.  

A lot of my Post-it Notes are things I write down and don’t need to keep past the next day like the hours a certain place might be open or their address. Lately, I’ve accumulated a lot of notes with measurements…moving boxes, furniture, PODS. One note I just threw out had, “High Sierra by HBE” which was the company that made some canvas camping and travel gear that I was going to sell on Facebook Marketplace, but I gave them to Goodwill instead. Apparently---fifth time if your counting---I don’t purge my Post-it Notes often enough because I found a bunch of them about migrating my subscriber list on this blog from Feedburner which is a done deal now. (If you haven't migrated your subscriber list yet, that July 1st deadline is closing in on you.) Another note, a medium sized yellow one, lists foods that are rich in potassium---bananas, spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes and cucumbers. 

And these lines from the website Escape Adulthood I though were Post-it Note worthy fun: "If you think the dictionary should be made into a movie. If you were disappointed to learn that Fifty Shades of Gray was NOT a home decor manual. These are signs that you might have Adultitis."

I tend to see my world as potential ideas for self-published books which comes from spending a life-time documenting where I've been and it occurs to me that if a person were to publish all the Post-it Notes they write in a year, it would tell a story of who that person is. My story would be of a frustrated, bad speller who is easily impressed by lyrical sentences, a woman who has the memory of circus flea. (Circus fleas, I’m assuming, have slightly better memories as other fleas roaming the earth.) Throw in a little germaphobic tendencies and obsessive planning and my Post-it Notes book would write itself.

Currently I torturing myself with a Post-it Note with the words: Maggie’s Song, Chris Stapleton. I heard it for the first time this week and burst out in tears. It’s a country western song about a dog and you know the drill with dogs that are featured in movies and songs---they always die at the end. Maggie’s Song is no different and I only have to look at the pink note to chock up with thoughts of Levi not making it to the finish line of us living on a lake come October. And sometimes in the dead of night I wonder if I will make it, if the stress will kill me before I get there. In the daylight the logical part of my brain takes center stage and I know I'm doing the right thing at the right time in my life, and for the right reasons and everything is going to work out according to plan. If not, I'll alter the plan to suit how it does turn out.

I leave you with another one of my Post-it Notes, a dedication that I found in a not-so-good book by an author new-to-me, T.L.Swan. The first line made me laugh but by the time I finished reading her dedication I'd moved over into the that's-so-cool zone: "I would like to dedicate this book to the alphabet. For those twenty-six letters have changed my life. Within those twenty-six letters I found myself and live my dream. Next time you say the alphabet remember its power. I do very day." ©

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30 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more on post-it notes, although I'm a little more disciplined than I used to be when I was working! You have some good ones. Isn't it frustrating to find one and wonder "what does that mean and why did I write it!" Good luck on your prepping!

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    1. I've been thinking about trying another system for saving thoughts that would normally go on a Post-it Note. Like using a bound book of blanket pages that I keep next to the computer. But I do find lots of notes that I can't figure out! LOL

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  2. Oh, those dead of night thoughts! They are the worst and thankfully evaporate in the light of the morning (as they should). Hugs to you, my friend!

    Deb

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  3. Big user of Post It notes here...they're all over the place. But for quotes that I love a lot, I have created a draft email that is now the size of a small book. :) That said, I read it over randomly just because I love so much of what it contains. And I add to it regularly.

    Dark of the night thoughts are the worst. I try to tell myself I'm seeing the worst side of any issue at 3 or 4 am, but it's hard to rationalize. I'm always relieved when morning comes and things look a little brighter. Being in the middle of a stress project like you are makes it worse. But hang in there...you will be so glad you did when you get moved.

    As for that song, given your description, I can't listen yet. A friend lost her dog this week and posted pics that looked so much like our buddy, I started to cry. Takes time, I guess.

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    1. I've created 8 or 9 books that I've had self-published for myself only at Blurb. And they are such nice quality. I'm thinking after I move Of creating another with the quotes I really love plus photos.

      I honestly think I've cried more over Levi than I had my husband but then I had 12 1/2 years to mourn Don in stages as parts of his personality faded after his stroke. Same thing happened with my dad. But Levi's and my mom's death were both so unexpected that, I'm sure, makes it harder to let go of the pain. You and I will both get there, like you said it takes time.

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  4. I have a little notebook that I use to keep track of book or movie titles I might want to look at. I don't make notes like you do so I probably just forget a lot of stuff. :)

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    1. I used to track every title of every book I read, had a computer file for them and how I rated the books. Wish I had kept that up but life got in the way...

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  5. I do use them a lot but mostly for grocery lists--most of my list is repeatable so this is for new items only. Also use them for my passwords. Have the wall next to my computer covered. I don't worry about anyone stealing them. If they are close enough to read them I am probably in a heap in the corner anyway:)

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    1. They say that's a big mistake people make...keeping they're passwords that handy. But we all do it.

      I can't image having a grocery list small enough to fit on a Post-it Note! The idea makes me smile. More power to you.

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  6. My love affair with Post-It notes began way back in the 70s, when I was living in Minnesota. My uncle had worked for 3M for many years, and he always shared new products with us. He brought a box full of the basic pale yellow post-its and I claimed them. He told us they weren't a big hit at first, but my goodness, within a few years, they were going like hot cakes. I still love them and have them posted all over the place. I haven't thought about what I'm going to do with them when I move, but I doubt I could ever throw them away. Maybe I'll stick them together in a stack. I laughed when you admitted that sometimes you can't remember if you wrote something or not--I AM THERE! At this point, I try to laugh it off and chalk it up to aging and drugs (not those kind...my prescribed ones).

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    1. My gosh, has the price of Post-it Notes gone up in recent years! My most useful use of them is in the car. If I'm running errands I'll have one on the dashboard with all the stops I have to make written in the order I need to make them.

      I wonder how long it will take for us to have our notes all over our new places. LOL

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  7. I have little note pads that I write notes on all the time.

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    1. I have tried that at various times but I never seem to stick to it and I really should. I have some lovely note pads and books of blank pages.

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  8. Post its! What a wonderful invention! Even the boys like them. I've switched over to computer/phone ... so I have room to write in more things (like who and why and where and when). I'm still looking for an app that will allow me to attach a "what" to an alarm ....

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    1. You are so far advanced over me when it comes to your phone and apps. I'll never catch up.

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  9. I love it. "My Life as Told Through Post-It Notes." I do use my phone app to make notes but if it is important, I write a Post-It and stick it on the front door so I'll see if first thing. I believe in the power of post-it notes. Its a shame young folks will never feel the pride of removing a post-it after a note has been completed.

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    1. I love all sizes of Post-it Notes too. I don't usually put them all over the house but I do have them on my keys, in my car and on my day planner was well as near my computer,

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  10. Thank you for making me think of Mum she had post it notes all over

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  11. We don't use Post-it notes much, mainly to put appointments on the calendar. When I see quotes I like I try to put them in rough drafts on my blog for times when I need inspiration.

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    1. I have a lot of stuff in drafts on my blog too although I don't think I use them as you as you do.

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  12. I need to follow your lead about being "militant about putting quotation marks around stuff." I keep lots of stickie notes on my computer and often find that I cannot remember who said that which I meticulously saved, meticulous about everthing except for who said it.

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    1. I don't know why we think we're going to remember critical details like that. The quotation marks help a lot.

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  13. I tried to remember the last time I used a Post-It note, and honestly, I think it might have been the last time I took a car trip with my mother, and used one of hers as a bookmark. That would put it around 2006 or 2007 -- clearly, that company isn't going to depend on me for their profit! I couldn't stand to have so many notes scattered around. I don't even post notes on my refrigerator. I have a dozen magnets I've picked up here and there, but they're things like replicas of museum paintings or quotations from Georgia O'Keeffe. I do keep small 5x7 legal pads for things like grocery lists, but quotations and such go into computer files. Keeping my space uncluttered helps me keep my head uncluttered!

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    1. Our office spaces do reflect the state of our brains, LOL My brain is always cluttered. My refrigerator, however, is note free and always had been. My not sure if I'll still use a lot of Post-it Notes once I'm using my new desk as I don't really like my notes to be were others can read them. My computer wardrobe has doors that close and that has contributed to me being free with the Post-it Notes.

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  14. When I was teaching, I was the queen of Post It notes. I had tons of them all over my stuff. I had the flags (little markers) in all my textbooks and Post Its hanging out of my gradebook always. Organization was my saviour.

    Now, not so much. I sort of miss them, but my life is much simpler now. A note here or there, and the computer program Sticky Notes are all I need. (And I just write the name of the person who said the quote when I write the quote. Saves time in the long run.)

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    1. I learned about Sticky Notes from you and I have the app on my Kindle now. I do use it there but no where near as often as I do notes on actual paper.

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  15. I love this! And I love knowing I'm not the only one! But mine seem to disappear into some abyss -- now where did I put that? I need to designate a post-it-note station, categorized by subject matter -- mostly quotes and TV shows to watch. LOL

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