You guys,
My memory is so bad that Sam worries one day I’ll wake up and not know who he is.
When I get off a 20-minute phone conversation with my mom, Sam asks, “What did you talk about?” And for the life of me I can only remember the very last thing she said. Over the course of the next three days, things will randomly come to me. “Oh, my mom told me this story about my niece.” “Oh, my cousin is pregnant.” “Oh yea, my brother is no longer speaking to my parents.”
Things like that.
So, generally speaking, it’s imperative for me to take notes.
If I don’t, I won’t remember anything from the book I’m currently listening to. Literally, I’ll be like, “I just finished reading I’ll Show Myself Out, it was SO GOOD.” And someone will respond, “Cool! What was it about?” Me [scrambling to remember the subtitle on the book cover]: “It’s about… essays on midlife and motherhood. It’s so good, you gotta read it.”
And then I crawl into a corner and die.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a good system for taking notes on Audible books, which is why I haven’t listened to one in years. But I wanted to give it another go because it’s so much easier to listen to a book than to actually read one. I can do it while breastfeeding, while driving to pick up George from daycare, while pacing on the back porch with Layla strapped to my chest, forcing her to listen to the book as well.
But when I hear something that gives me that feeling like, “I need to write this down,” I’m never in a position to do so. [See above.] So every time I hear something noteworthy I pause the book. Hours (or days) later I finally sit on my laptop and open Evernote, rewind 30 seconds, and transcribe the note. This system is, at best, kind of annoying, and at worst, extremely inefficient.
Sometimes I don’t FEEL like pausing and waiting until I can sit at my computer and type. I mean, do I really need to transcribe the following line into my notes?:
“Whenever I put on a bracelet I instantly look like a pirate.”
I laughed out loud when I heard that line. I consider anything that makes me laugh out loud noteworthy. Maybe if I transcribe it the words will seep into my bones and someday I will write something like Jessi Klein. Not that I want to write like Jessi Klein but I do want to write something that makes people laugh.
Sometimes it’s not a line that moves me, but an entire chapter, like the chapter on potty training. We haven’t started potty training George yet but I assume we will have to do it someday and Jessi’s story and pacing and flow made the whole thing one perfect essay. What am I supposed to do? Analyze the chapter? Listen again? Break it down?
Ugh. I’m reminded of a conversation with a high school senior last year when I asked her what books they were reading in English class. She rattled off a list and said they might be good if the teachers didn’t suck the joy out of reading them. They analyze every chapter until there’s nothing left to analyze and then she hates the book.
At the time I thought she was missing the point. That’s how you LEARN. That’s how the story stays with you!
But here I am, just wanting to listen and enjoy my book (that I’ve chosen, btw) and not take notes.
I kinda wish I was in a book club where we read books and gave each other assignments like, “Analyze the potty training chapter. What were your takeaways?” Because then I’d be held accountable and it would feel like analyzing the chapter mattered. If I’m going to take notes, I would like to receive an A+ for my efforts.
Does anyone want to do this with me?
No, nevermind. I’m kidding. I couldn’t possibly. Just the thought of it is stressing me out.
I’d love to know if anyone out there uses the bookmarking tool on Audible. I realize I can Google it [ahem, Sam] but I’d feel more inspired if I heard from an actual person who successfully uses this feature. Thank you in advance. :)
Sex Talk
Okay, I got the scoop on how “kids these days” are having sex.
Back in my day (OMG I’m so old), we had sex at each other’s houses when the parents weren’t home. When I say we, I mean other kids who weren’t me because I didn’t have sex for the first time until I was 21 years old (and yes, it was still at my boyfriend’s parents’ house. In their basement).
Apparently, kids these days are still having sex at each other’s houses but now, the parents not only know what’s going on, some parents (and I was told this by a parent of two teenage girls) coordinate with their kids so they can leave the house while their son or daughter has sex.
So I’d be like, “George, sweetie, if Lauren comes over after school tomorrow I’ll be gone for two hours.” Wink, wink.
This was a lot to wrap my head around when one kid doesn’t even fully say “Mama” yet and the other one blows raspberries all day. Nonetheless, it led to a conversation with Sam about how we’re going to handle sex talks with our kids as they get older.
We landed on periodic “safe sex” conversations to check in with them, unlike the one-and-done birds-and-the-bees talk I got from my mom in 4th grade and then never spoke of sex again.
How do you think about communication with your kids around sex education?
Bleecker Bombs
My best friend of all time was on the podcast!!
I’ve known Kylie since the 2nd grade when I fell on the playground on a piece of glass during a game of Boys Chase Girls and she carried me, all bloody, to the nurse’s office.
Of course she didn’t carry me. We were 7. And it was probably a scraped knee. But that’s how we remember it.
This episode is about friendship, the growth that happens after high school, and our relationships with alcohol.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, overcast.fm, or Apple Podcasts.
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Until next week,
Charlie