22 April 2008

How sick am I?

I like to frequent a local restaurant because it has delicious, freshly prepared appetizers and I can usually get a seat at the bar in front of a TV where I can satisfy my obsessions with CNN, Law & Order, and the Red Sox. The restaurant has a satellite TV system whose channel numbers are completely different from our cable TV channels at home.

If you've read this far, you can probably see where I'm going with this. Yes, I have a page in my Personal Filofax, behind the Lists tab and in alphabetical order by the name of the restaurant, with the numbers for my favorite channels on the bar TV.

So, I got there the other night, and another solitarily dining woman was watching public TV and had taken dibs on the remote. When she was getting ready to leave, she offered me the opportunity to change the channel, and said she was looking for CNN. I whipped out my Filo and gave her the channel number.

She was grateful, but gave me a seriously funny look. In the end, she and I had a lovely conversation and made a good connection. I find that pulling out my Filo frequently turns out to be a conversation starter, usually beginning with someone remarking, "my, what a long to-do list you have." I'd appreciate hearing, in the comments, if anyone else has experienced this phenomenon.

And of course, feel free to tell me what a sick puppy I am for using my Filo to keep track of my favorite TV channels at the bar.

7 comments:

  1. The common quip is "I didn't think you were the sort to have a Filofax".

    Also what's wrong with recording channel numbers? You can have 40, 46, 43 and 50 (Gloucestershire) and 22, 28, 25, 32 and 35 (Herefordshire) from my Notes section. Try fixing an aerial and tuning a TV without them.

    Red wine is drunk by the best people.

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  2. here the thing people say to me is: so you have a busy life!! because my filofax is ful of things that i have to do and appointments. but my life isn't that busy. I just write everything down. like on every day that my son has to do his baby exercises and that i have to do the dishes and some shopping.

    Rose

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  3. I giggled. It's true. But SICK isn't the word I'd apply here - the word efficient seems much more appropriate! What's wrong with keeping a list in a place where you can find it? I've got all sorts of bits in my book that are there more for convenience than anything else - like hockey schedules (so I can know without checking what days the spouse is most definitely not available).

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  4. Hi Inky,

    Sorry that you hear again from me (since I use my Palm again) but this is a nice topic.
    And it's this kind of lists that I carry (lots of them!) with me in my Palm.
    And whether we use a Philofax or a Palm, having dinner in a restaurant and drinking red wine is always great!

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  5. @andrzej, @lovely-rose, @notare: Thanks for helping me remember that what's important to record in a Filofax is indeed the information that we need, without judgement. I really enjoyed reading how you use your Filos. Thanks so much for your comments.

    @leen: When I used a Palm all the time, I actually had more lists than I have now. I loved the idea that I had so much information with me in such a small place. When I switched to Filo, I didn't bring all the lists with me. They live in Chronos Notes. Please keep reading!

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  6. Hi Inky,
    It was a great posting to read as well a comforting thought that I've not come to this stage yet :-). However consider it as something that is comforting you and it even supported creating new social contact. At the end of the day every human being will have some behavior that someone else might consider at least remarkable. I've switched from lists on gadgets or web 2.0 apps to filofax and ehm... moleskine lately...(so I'm on the way getting into a certain stage).. and I just love it...no more stress of failing equipment, webconnections...if only my ehm...Mega Inkball...wouldn't skip so often... Do you think I need help? :-)

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  7. @iwan - Welcome to Philofaxy! Lots of use Moleskines or other notebooks sometimes, too. It is indeed comforting to be in like company. You sound pretty normal to me! ;)

    I raise another glass of red wine to all of you!

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