The Day My Daughter Found My Little Black Book

I have carried my little black book in my purse/tote/or whatever it is that I am carrying at the moment. It is a little moleskine book that could fit in one's pocket.  Even though it is at least four years old, it looks brand new.

Does it have addresses in it?  No

Does it have phone numbers of old boyfriends?  Nope.  At least it better not since my husband and I have been together for almost 10 years (married for almost 4 of those years).

Phone numbers of any kind?  Maybe a few scribbled here and there on pages.

Does it have dates and times of meetings, events that I was scheduled to attend, or occasions to remember?  Nope, not really.

My little black book is a moleskine book filled with lined paper.  It contains page upon page of lists and notes (and lots of passwords and usernames which I shouldn't have been carrying around with me).  Chalk that up to youth and naivete.

I had bought the moleskine (mol-a-skeen'-a) book at a bookstore.   I wanted something I could jot down notes in.  I had wanted something chic but I settled for simple, understated, and durable. Writers and artists had been using them to jot down inspiration for over two centuries.

My daughter had found it in a bag I brought downstairs filled with items to go through.  My daughter loved the little elastic band that could be used to mark a page. She was running around the kitchen pretending to read it.  I asked her to bring it to me so I could see it.  I got lost in the pages for several minutes, reminiscing.

Within it's pages, I have the list of things I saw throughout the year for ideas for Christmas presents for 2005.  There was a list of repairs and miscellaneous things we had to do before we sold our old house and a list of what we wanted in our new home in 2006.  Our trip to Home Depot and Lowe's was documented with a list of what we needed to finish the basement in the house we ended up buying (and that we just finished this year way over the budget detailed in the book).

The book served as my diet journal when I was trying to lose a few pounds before I got pregnant.  There are lists of things I needed to do and buy even a list of questions I had for my OB right before I was to give birth to my daughter in 2007 and I was starting to freak out. My librarian friend's book recommendations for children's books made its way into the book and books that I wanted to read while I was home on maternity leave (the leave that extended after I decided not to return to work).

There are also lists of what I got all of our friends and family for 3-4 Christmases in a row because I was afraid of giving duplicate gifts since I was the one solely in charge of shopping. Notes on the cars I was looking at when we went car shopping after our daughter was born are there to along with the guest list and the menu for our daughter's first birthday party.

This book told me more about my life and what I saw and did than the journal that sits with less than a dozen entries from the last several years on my nightstand.  It is also now my daughter's obsession.  She wants her own little black book to write in.  This one was retired about two years ago and replaced with a new one.  I think I would buy her her own before I handed this one back over.  I think it is going to go in a safe place for now.

Do you have a little black book?  What is in your's?