Mountains out of molehills

I use two paper calendars. One sits on the kitchen counter and is the kind you flip over day by day. That’s where social engagements, appointments, volunteer commitments go, as well as some daily to-dos. That’s where I’m supposed to look in the morning so I don’t miss anything. It is VERY IMPORTANT to turn over the page each morning.

My other paper calendar has a monthly view. I write down all the appointments and social events in this one, too, but this one allows me to plan ahead. I can see that saying “how about next Tuesday” won’t work because there’s already something there. And the important thing about this one is that it’s portable: it goes upstairs, downstairs, to meetings, in the car. It’s paper, measures 7 x 10 inches, has a simple staple binding, and has proven itself as my most valuable tool.

Every year, I would march down to the Calista Corporation offices and pick up the new monthly calendar for the year. Last year, they stopped printing them. It could have been catastrophic, but miraculously, I found a very similar one at Target.

So today I headed over to Office Depot to pick up my 2016 desk calendar refill. They were all cleaned out. So was Target and Fred Meyer. (Take moment to beat up on myself for waiting till the last minute, even after writing about being “on my own calendar.”) So there’s always Amazon, right?

Aiiiieee, not that rabbit hole again! I found the desk calendar refill easily enough, but an hour later, I’m still looking at pictures of monthly “planners” that turn out to have leather covers, spiral binding, or extra pages of stuff. I put in the product number from the one I have and the manufacturer: Mead. Eventually, I work my way to the Mead website. I guess they don’t make this product number anymore. I keep getting shown bigger, heavier, $20 calendars. I don’t want to carry around a tome. I just want my little cheapie calendar.

I finally found one that might work, but of course this doesn’t add up to $35 for free shipping. Aiiieee, $20.30 to ship 8.5 ounces of paper? Okay, so then you know what I have to do? I have to look around for something else to buy to reach $35.

Bridget had recommended a new game, Catch Phrase. Hmmm, turns out there’s paper Catch Phrase and electronic Catch Phrase and a newer version that is not as excellent as another version so you have to be sure to buy product #A4625 or you’ll get the dud version. How do I know this? I’ve been down the Hasbro rabbit hole. I’ve read reader reviews on Amazon, and one guy checked it all out with Hasbro Live Chat. (My kind of guy!) Initially, Amazon tells me that this product is out of stock and doesn’t know when it will be made available. But after an hour of fruitless exploration, the product disappears entirely from Amazon except for one copy that costs $220! I have to wait till Monday to call Live Chat myself and get to the bottom of this.

So now I’m three hours into the quest for a calendar so my 2016 can be as productive as possible.

Right.

But this is my Third Third and I have a grown daughter. I think she has Amazon Prime. She gets free shipping. I send her the links for the calendars, and she sends me the order confirmation.

What a great new year this might be!