Every Christmas I receive a new cal-en-dar to hang in my kitchen as well as a planner to write down every appointment and to-do list throughout the year. I keep both a physical and electronic cal-en-dar.
Cal-en-dar (n.): a chart or series of pages showing the days, weeks, and months of a particular year, or giving particular seasonal information; any of various systems of reckoning time, especially with reference to the beginning, length, and divisions of the year.
Perhaps I am so adamant about keeping a cal-en-dar because it is a diary; schedule; program. I’ve always enjoyed making lists, writing, and managing my own time. Keeping a cal-en-dar is natural. With the usefulness of iCal-en-dar, I can invite others to events I’m attending or hosting.
Earlier this month I began thinking about what to be for Halloween. Although there were no plans on my cal-en-dar, I knew I would still need a costume. I can’t remember what Sam and I were talking about, but he referred to me as his cal-en-dar; it is true that I keep track of all of our activities. That is when it occurred to me: I should be a cal-en-dar.
I set to work.
A cardboard box.
White, red, orange, brown, green paint.
Black sharpie.
Elastic.
With the materials above, I would be a cal-en-dar for Halloween!
I decided to make a sandwich board cal-en-dar to wear with a cute little dress. Because Halloween is the last day of October, the cal-en-dar on the front is November and the back is December.
In November, my birth-day month, the cal-en-dar keeps a hair appointment, art fair, trip to the Stanley Hotel, my birth-day, Sam’s birth-day, Turkey Day, and Black Friday. December holds Sankt Nikolaus Tag, a musical at the Boulder Dinner Theatre Stage, a trip to the museum of natural history, an early morning flight to western New York, Christmas, and a return to Colorado followed by a day off.
Though I en-joy planning, plotting, and scheduling, I often feel there are not enough hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a year. When we’re young, time is a snail; the older we get, the faster time runs. We’re expected to always be doing something purposeful but sometimes, not doing anything serves a greater purpose than filling the cal-en-dar with appointments and grown-up obligations.
Where does the cal-en-dar hold time for creativity–general time for activities that keep us young?
-Ashley