Notebook Story

How did I come to own a mid-size, softback, black Moleskine notebook? Well, the short answer is: as a response to the realization that my small-size, hardback, black Moleskine notebook (made specifically for Berlin, UBahn and detailed neighbourhood maps included) was simply too tiny for my erratic scribbles and sketches, not to mention those that go on for page after 3x5 page. Don’t get me wrong; though it sounds like our relationship is on the rocks, there are many traits my little BerlinSkine possesses that I find irresistible. So, I keep coming back. 

1. The first sketch on the first of the blank pages is of my dear friend and pet hamster, Eleanor, in a moment just after she’d packed her cheeks particularly full of seeds and little kibbles. And my first entry- of a dream to do with feeling completely alive I drifted in and out of just before, and in anticipation of, my travel date.

2. The size, of course, can also be quite advantageous in that it fits into my bag along with the empty pens and/or schoko milch carton(s), lose, partially unwrapped pieces of Trident Tropical, a sweater or two, my brick of a wallet, a small tube of roll-on nuit de mai parfum, loose tobacco, some brown bobby pins, sand, and whatever else had collected in my giant bag.

3. The reason I have it at all. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Moscow (Idaho). I met my friend Ashley Bell outside of the One World Café and she was wearing a new, blue dress. She had, next to her glass of white wine with a bit of condensation on the side of the bottom, a new little Berlin notebook. She handed it over with one of those ‘hear’s all my teeth’ grins and brown eyes glowing. Then, into our Deutsch lesson we dove. She wanted me to be able to at least, “sound like a jackass in German.” Afterward, we rode our bikes to the park and continued to drink wine in the shade of a tree until strollers, and toddlers, and Smokey the Bear all joined us for an unexpected demonstration on fire safety.

I bought my mid-size, softback, black Moleskine notebook in the Ostbanhof shopping center on a Sunday, because it was open.