For Christmas, I got my sisters, my sister in law, my mom, and myself each a little stocking stuffer-- list paper. Cute magnetic pads of paper for random list making. My sister in law got us each a stocking stuffer too-- a set of list pads. Four to a set titled To Do, To Buy, To Remember, and To Get (a pre-made grocery list where you just check off what you need.) And, of course, my mom got us each a stocking stuffer as well-- little books for list keeping! (These are more specific though and tailored to our individual interests.) Nobody was disappointed by the abundance of list making materials though. This is because we are list people.
I'm not sure I've ever blogged about this habit before, but I know Kirsta talked about it a little bit here. Turns out I'm a little obsessive about list making. Everything needs a list-- books I want to read, things I need to do, stuff to pack before we go on vacation, movies we own, etc. (Confession here: the list of movies we own isn't just a list. It's a fully functional spreadsheet including movie title, rating, run time, category (genre), subcategory, two columns for big name actors or actresses (if there are any), a date column listing the last time we watched it, a column to keep track of movies that are borrowed, and the location of the movie (we keep them in binders because we have no wall space for the ridiculous number of movies we own.) Yes, it took a long time to do. Yes, it was totally worth it; we use it all the time. Seriously.) Anyway...
One day I started thinking about when this all started. My mom and my sisters are list makers, so it's not surprising that I am too, but when did all this list making start?
Thinking back:
College: Yep, made lists then. To do lists, homework lists, grocery lists...
High School: Yes again. Mostly homework lists with the occasional to do list thrown in.
Middle School: I don't remember a whole lot of list making in middle school, but I'm sure I did because suddenly I am remembering a ridiculous amount of list making going on in elementary school.
Yep. Apparently we started young. Here's what I remember.
Whenever my sisters and I had some free time and we didn't know what to do we would sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper and make a list of possible activities. Now, I don't mean that we quickly jotted a couple things down and decided. This was SERIOUS business. We would each have our own pencil and paper and we would set a time limit (I KNOW!) for the process. Then we would each come up with as many possibilities of things to do as we could. And then? We would read our lists to each other and VOTE on what we would do. The funny thing is, most of what I remember is the actual list making, not doing anything else. I guess we all thought that was the best part anyway, because otherwise why didn't we just KEEP a list and refer back to it? Who knows? I guess we were just born list makers.
Well. Now that I've alienated all my friends with clear evidence that I am CRAZY, why don't you tell me your craziest list story. Then go back to your own blog and blog about your bizarre childhood habits. I promise I won't judge.
I'm a list maker too. Not crazy, but we have a chore list on the side of our fridge on dry erase boards and we write down the date we did it (using a different color for each week). Brandon is a MAJOR lister too. Must be an engineer thing!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I loves lists...my only problem is finding the list that I made. Now which notebook or random piece of paper was that writtn on...???
ReplyDeleteI was going to tease you about the list thing, but then I looked at my lap top and there is a list stuck to it about the pictures I need to print.
ReplyDeleteLists are awesome. I think my Awkward series is embarassing enough though. Coming up is my quail story AND the time I set some poor guy's lawn on fire in attempt to answer him creatively for a dance.
ReplyDeleteYESSSS! Making lists of thing we could do as 7-year-olds! Right along with making lists of possible names for our stuffed animals, then narrowing it down to the top 3 by way of vote, then voting out of those three. Then not remembering the name we picked and doing it again the next week! Our animals are STILL name-less thanks to our addiction. Also: minute-by-minute list of how we would spend Christmas Eve Day so as the pass the time more efficiently in preparation for Santa. AND ALSO: making lists in church of outfits for the next week. Remember that? When you planned to match your belt to your shoes because people CARED? I spend all day in my pajamas now.
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