Sami’s Blog: Not a diary

Sami’s Blog: Not a diary

If your endless ‘To Do’ list of jobs to tick off is anything like mine then it takes up much of your mental capacity and seems to grow at an alarming rate. I am always jogging through lists in my messy head such as “Buy milk, and dog food, learn yoga, pay number 1 kid’s dance fees, pick up number 2 kid from rugby, and buy number 3 kid sunscreen.”

I have a diary that is called ‘The Bible’ as we all do what it says and if it is not in there then do not expect miracles to happen such as being dropped off to your friend’s birthday party. My husband recently has had a change of career and I said to him he would need to buy his own diary to keep up with our silly pace.

This would be part of our new world order and it would really help me if he had a diary. He looked me in the eye and told me he would go to Officeworks that very day and buy a diary. I thought this would change our lives for the better. That night I spied a book on the kitchen table that was labelled “Undated Diary”. What exactly is an undated diary? I picked it up and flicked through the empty white pages. It looked like a scrap book. Or a journal. Or a book for To Do lists. It did not have a day or date or month in view. I turned to my husband and said “So, just pop in an entry for our youngest son’s birthday in August.” But wait. How would he know where to write this commitment because he had bought a scrap book. It is not a diary if it does not have dates. End of argument. He tried to explain to me as my face turned purple in anger that you just write your own dates in the book. I realised it would be yet another job I would need to add to my mental ‘To Do’ list.

A few nights later we sat there together writing 365 days of the year in his stupid blank book. The one I refuse to call a dairy. Because it is not a diary. It is a notebook, a portfolio, and a scratch pad. Call it anything but a diary. I could have used that time to buy milk and dog food. No wonder I have started drinking spirits.