delight in life

safely home

On the back cover of this book there's a place for your address and an instruction: "Tape this journal closed. Mail it to yourself." This one was hard to do because I knew there was a chance it might not come back, but right before Christmas, I got brave. I braced myself to accept the loss, taped it up (it's been in two pieces for several months now), put the same address in the to: and from: blanks, and shipped it out.

When we returned home after the holidays, it was waiting for me in our stuffed mailbox. The mailman might think I'm a crazy person. Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed in its condition. The only signs it even went through the mail are the postmarks! I guess I was hoping that it would fall out of the mail truck into a mud puddle and get run over or something. I wanted battle scars!

Alas, I suppose I should have better faith in our postal system, because it returned to me as good as it left. I was planning for this to be the journal's swan song and to retire it after I mailed it. But flipping through it, there are so many exciting tasks I have yet to accomplish! At least a few more weeks of excitement are definitely in order. I think I'll take it on our North Dakotan sleigh ride this weekend! Maybe a reindeer will poop on it.

throw something

The weather was really nice the weekend before last, so to celebrate I continued on in my quest to wreck this journal. I decided on "throw something: a pencil, a ball dipped in paint". I enjoyed myself immensely.

 

climb up high

 

I go through phases with this book. I picked it up again recently and have been completing activities here and there. I took advantage of the presence of my film major cousin Justin and my experienced roof climbing sister Abby to get this task done. It was fun. I did it twice because I so enjoyed the first time. Also because it was over in about three seconds.

 

delightfully disgusting

 A delicious burrito bowl from Chipotle, preserved forever in my book. The brown blob in the top left is Dr. Pepper. The red splotch next to it is Tabasco sauce. The dark smudge below the DP is a smushed black bean. The green is some tasty tasty guacamole, and the light smear at the bottom is a piece of smushed corn and whatever sauce was on my chicken.

Chris was a very good sport as his dinner companion gleefully smeared her dinner into a book in a public place.

at your own risk

I bought Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith 6 months ago. I followed the first instruction, "crack the spine," immediately and it bothered me so much I put the book away. The perfectionist in me couldn't handle that bent spine sitting on my bedside table.

Today I dug it out and decided to play. Things got a little out of hand when I decided the page wasn't burning fast enough and encouraged it to go a little faster. I burned through 4 pages of the book, but I managed to get everything back under control AND keep the smoke alarm from going off. SUCCESS. I suppose the only thing that would have been better is if I'd been forced to douse the book in water to save my apartment.