Am I one sick puppy or what? Notebook paper???

[Jamastiene]

I could probably make some psychologists scratch their heads in confusion. I have this ritual that I go through for college, right before a new semester starts. No, that's not the weird part. Other people probably do a milder "normal" version of my little ritual. It's just the process of getting ready for classes, especially the first day back. You know. Buying paper, notebooks, pencils (or pencil leads and erasers for the refillable pencils), and getting supplies ready in general.

I just go a little further and write the catalog number and class name on the first page of each section in my looseleaf notebook. Also, I write the date in the upper right hand corner of each "first page" for each class. Some classes start Monday, August 15, 2005 and some start Tuesday, August 16, 2005. Also, I skip a line under the portion where I wrote the class name and catalong number and on the left hand side of the paper, I write the actual time that class is supposed to start. That is still not the weird part.

The weird part happened while I was performing my little ritual tonight (this morning, really). I actually ran out of paper in between semesters trying to organize these bills I have received from surgery. Every doctor who walked into the room while I was having surgery charged me for their "services". I needed notebook paper and I am on a tight budget. I hate Wal-Mart. No, I am not the least bit proud that my hometown just opened the biggest Wal-Mart in the world. Actually, I'm saddened that they are now our largest source of employment in the county. It's a sad day when a virtual slave driving sweat shop store surpasses even local and state government as a major source of jobs. That's beside the point, but important. Hating Wal-Mart lead me to just buy some paper at twice the price at a local grocery store.

I don't even know who makes this paper or even the name brand. The only identifying marks or closest thing to a logo that it has is a clip art shape of a black apple with a chunk bitten out of it. In the space where the chunk is missing sits a purple dot about the diameter of a BB. Other than that, I haven't a clue.

I finished getting the paper in the notebook, estimating how many notes I would write in each class and put the closest number of sheets of paper I thought I would need into each section. When I finished putting my little "holes", stickers to reinforce the holes in looseleaf notebook paper, on the first and last page of every section, I broke out my pencil and started to write the catalog numbers, names, etc. of each class.

Here's the beginning of the weird part. Just as I put my hand on the page and started to write, I was stopped in my tracks. I noticed the feel of this paper was so silky. OMG, I couldn't believe I was reacting to freaking notebook paper as if I was getting a massage or something. It freaked me out, but the silky feeling didn't stop at just touching the paper with me hand. When I started writing, I was taken aback by how easy it was to write neatly and with no friction, whatsoever, to slow me down. And when I had to erase one of my millions of mistakes I've made in this lifetime, I didn't have to press down hard or aim that precisely to erase without leaving "ghost" marks.

OMG, I sound like a bad commercial or ad. Noooooooo! Well, one good thing about it is the fact that I don't know the name brand of this paper. No one has to hear about that, thankfully.

Have I lost my mind (well, more than my normal state of neurosis)? What is happening to me? Could it just be that I am excited because I get to take an English writing class this semester? What's up with having a pleasurable, although not sexual, physical and near spiritual experience over touching paper? What's this perversion of falling in love with notebook paper I'll probably never find in any store again? I'm losing the rest of my mind. That's gotta be it. I'm having fund doing it though. That's the brite side. Right?

[KitchenWitch]

1. I was always anal about the pre-school ritual as well

I guess it kept the badgers out! :rofl:

Sounds like you got some great paper.

[Jamastiene]

3. LOL

:rofl: That's a good one. Maybe it's really the truth too. I think so, possibly.

Getting this paper reminded me so much of a story my favourite writer, Stephen King, told one time. He had gotten this ream of paper that was colored. First, there was a stack of bright neon pink paper, then a stack of bright neon green paper, then another color and then another color. It was like postit notes, but in typing/printer paper size. He said that paper felt almost haunted or blessed in some way because he did his best writing on it.

I hope this strange paper gives me an edge this semester. I've got straight A's in college so far and it's a big deal to me. I could have done it in high school, but goofed off and didn't. I want to make the most out of college, especially since I love computer/electronics engineering, my major.

I am kind of nervous about having so many different classes in one semester like this. I am used to 2 or 3 classes a day at most. Well, in a way, it'll be no different, just a little more complicated. I will still have only 3 classes a day, but it's broken up and weird.

Because my new advisor/main teacher/head of electronics department guy counts labs for his classes as separate classes instead of rolling it into one big grade, I'll have to remember more mundane scheduling bullshit than normal. I have labs on 2 days only, but I go to the class associated with that lab class every day, except Fridays. I have no classes at all on Fridays. Yipppeeee! I get Fridays off to sleep in, which means I may be able to come back on DU at night on Thursdays in addition to the weekends. I always get out of whack with my sleep schedule on the weekends and on holidays and have to try to "recover" on Mondays, a.k.a. the bad days.

I think it's freaking me out. This guy's weird way of looking at labs is just one more thing to remember and get used to. It's a pain to be honest about it. Trying to remember to keep notes in class and notes in lab totally separated is going to be a pain. Also, having to flip whole entire sections back and forth to do the labs is going to be a pain too.

The weird thing about it is that the teacher says the phrase "this guy" in his Iranian/southern accent a lot. My old advisor/teacher kept asking me last semester when I first met the new teacher if I had heard him say "this guy" yet. Now, I am hyper aware of how much he says it. It's kind of cute, actually.

[LastKnight]

2. its official

youve lost it.

silky paper...

i mean i know some paper is better than other but ive never described paper as 'silky' before.

dont worry, we all have our preclass rituals... all of which are geeky to some extent.

[Jamastiene]

6. Say I'm certifiably losing it, am I?

LOL. At least I am having fun doing it, though. That's the best part. If you could only feel this paper. It is sooo silky. I wish I could share it somehow. I wish I had enough money to go back and buy up all they had in stock so I wouldn't have to dread going back to the cheap crap I normally use.

Maybe getting the official "Biggest Wal-Mart in the world" wasn't such a bad thing. I mean I hated the old Wal-Mart we had, but not enough to go through great lengths and even spend more money just to avoid it like the plague. I know people around here who loved the old Wal-Mart and even the supercenters, but they hate the biggest one in the world. It's like a Wal-Mart mini-city full of bad directions and confused and way too crowded, even for those who like that wretched place. I despise Wal-Mart.

I'd rather groom dogs than go to Wal-Mart. That's pretty bad, because my back is physically messed up bad from grooming dogs for 6 years right out of high school. And any time I try to groom someone's dog to pick up some extra cash, I end up having to waste myself with pain meds afterwards to get out of agony. It starts hurting about 10 minutes into drying the dog and straightening and fluffing his/her hair and keeps getting worse and worse until I am actually working hard just to keep from screaming in agony. I can't explain it, but it's a bad feeling, physically. When it comes to going to Wal-Mart, I have actually found something I hate more than dog grooming.

[Sugar Smack]

4. Hey, babydoll!

:hi:

I am thinking about it, and I suspect it's the WRITING INSTRUMENT that's making you all gooey. Don't get me wrong, I love a smooth sheet of notebook paper as much as the next person, but if you have the proper writing equipment (like a smooth gel pen) it can make you all fluttery inside.

[Jamastiene]

7. Sweet.

Leave it it you, to make me feel good about something weird like this. And yes, I agree with you about a good writing instrument. I like the micro point pens and can't stand using a medium point. I do love a smooth pen. Pencils, I'd rather be using one of the cartridge pencils with the leads you can buy and refill than a standard wooded pencil. I like them fine point to. As far as wooden pencils, if I must use them, I can't stand the ones with the fake wood and light colored lead. They are still listed as No. 2 pencils, but they couldn't possibly be. I like real wood pencils if I have to use the wooden ones.

This time though, I think it's the paper. Honestly, I love the pencil I have been using since I started this back to school thing 2 years ago. I have used it so much, I can't make out the name brand on it. It's worn off now. I buy the erasers for it buy the handful. They come 5 to a pack, but I get several packs at the beginning of each semester and use them. I'm a neat freak in my notebook only. My computer has files I have saved thrown in this folder and that folder in no organized manner. My room looks like gale force winds blew through here and I just left it like that. The car, forget it. It's a disaster area. I have pine straw where I park to try to keep the weeds from tripping me on the way to the car. This yard has no lawn. I had a couple of small patches of centipede grass, but the rest of the yard is full of weeds that my stepfather (a very straight laced guy) calls "triffads" like in that movie. All is a total state of chaos around me, yet my notebook stays so organized that it bothers me when the pencil is to the left of the pen in the little holder I put them in. I'm left handed but the pencil is easier to grab if I leave it closest to the right hand side. I'm weird about it. I can't get over it. I have a few things I'm neat about. The rest can be a total state of chaos and I'm happiest that way.

[NMMNG]

5. I can't wait to get back to school so I can have pre-class rituals

I miss school. I miss that excitement of choosing courses, getting my textbooks, getting my course plans/syllabi, setting up everything for class. Sigh

[Jamastiene]

8. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who had these rituals. I mean I know other people seem to make a trip and buy all the stuff, but getting it all ready seems to annoy most people. I look forward to that part. It's the easiest part of going back to school. Or should I say it's the part that is the most fun?

[NMMNG]

9. Oh, it is definitely the most fun

My ritual changes from semester to semester/year to year, but I love it every time. Day-planners, dry-erase boards, loose-leaf binders, whatever. I get goose bumps just imagining it all.

[Jamastiene]

10. Is it safe to say that we share a common

dream of being locked into an office supply store overnight with the right to open and use and organize anything we want to our heart's content? Or maybe a dream of winning a shopping spree at an office supply store. I'd be like a kid in a candy store. It'd be so wonderful, I'd probably not be able to fill up enough buggies and I'd still want more.

[Sugar Smack]

11. Office supply stores excite the hell out of me!

All that unused potential, all those blank sheets of paper yet to have the ideas in people's heads scribbled down on them! I love going into Staples with fifty bucks, not that it happens a lot. To answer your earlier post, I don't like pencils as much as pens. I love the permanence of pens. I even do crossword puzzles in them.

[Jamastiene]

12. You must be good at it to be able to do them in pen.

I love crossword puzzles too. I do them in pencil because sometimes I get stumped and try stuff out. Someone I know was recently diagnosed with dementia (and with that person, I said the had it long ago, but in a different way) and their doctor told them to start doing crossword puzzles to improve their memory. Well, when the person is finished with his old newspapers, he gives them to me to read. Oh, my goodness, it started out a valiant effort. As the days went on, the answers he put in there got worse and worse until he started filling in the clues writing the word screw in a 5 letter across word and this in a 4 letter across word next to it. It was hilarious to read what all he had to say about how frustrating it was for him. If you knew the guy, you'd understand why I would be laughing at it. I'm not laughing that he has the medical condition. He hates anything like crossword puzzles, computers, and anything else that has to do with using his mind more than his strength, so being forced to try crossword puzzles didn't look like it'd be a good idea to begin with, but reading how he finally gave up by looking at the responses he gave in the puzzles to clues was hilarious.

I love pens too. I love the permanence of what they write too for final versions of earlier drafts. I make too many mistakes to do it in pen from the get go though.

[NMMNG]

13. They do say that the office supply store = the adults toy store n/t

[Jamastiene]

16. It certainly is for me. n/t

[driver8]

15. I miss college too...

The beer, the girls, the parties, the parties, the beer, the girls, the classes...did I mention that I miss the parties, beer and girls??

[Jamastiene]

17. LOL

I can see why you miss college. Sounds like you had fun.

[Pharlo]

14. I like a good quality unlined paper and a 0.7mm lead mechanical pencil

And thanks for starting this thread - it's nice to know I'm not the only one whose writing supply requirements are a tad bit quirky.

Have you ever found yourself color coding your notes (the paper itself, MUST be white, but if you take a highlighter and color the upper right hand corner of the sheets of paper)...

[Jamastiene]

20. Yes, on pages where the teacher says this is important

I will highlight that part in pink. On pages I kind of think might be important, I highlight in yellow. That way I can tell which ones I absolutely have to know and which ones might not hurt to know. I am someone who normally never dog ears a book or write in them except maybe my name inside the cover, but if it's a tough class and I have a question, I'll do the dog ear thing. I'm not proud of that, but when I get it straight, I undogear it. My textbooks stay in good shape, but despite the price, I haven't resold any of them. I probably could, but I'd rather keep them in case I ever get an invention idea and need reference. I'll have the best reference collection if it's electrical calculations, house wiring, commercian wiring or electroncis.

I have a virtual library at this point. Hope to have more computer programming books before it's all over with. I have a Visual C# Programming book, but I prefer to learn hard code (text coding) to that way. I always did my html pages on the net that way too. I'd start them in Netscape and then neaten up and add to the code until I started learning. It taught me a lot about html to know the hard coding so I could fix stuff. I hope to go ahead in the book while I am in the C# class and check out the hard code in C++ to make sure I get more out of it.

[MrScorpio]

18. You're crazy like a coconut

But if it works for you, go for it.

[Jamastiene]

21. I'm certifiable. For sure.

I think it's called a fetish when it reaches this point. I gotta get up early in the morning and go pick up the textbook that wasn't in stock when I went last week. I'm staying up. I'm actually excited about going back. I hope it's less crowded so I can get one of those neon mini-staplers. Oh, my mouth is watering at the though. Maybe I'll get something else different too. Oh, to have time to look around and not be in a rush like on the massive long line textbook day last week was...

[SoCalDem]

19. You are a fastidious student for sure..

I tried to be organized, but usually ended up taking notes on the back of any paper scrap that presented itself.

[Jamastiene]

22. I've done that in addition to my organized notebook when

I ended up in lab unexpectedly some days. I actually picked up a cigarette pack off the floor and used it. I'm such an education whore when it comes to trying to soak up any knowledge any way I can. I want to learn as much as possible. I can't help it.

[fleabert]

23. I don't think you are weird! Just a tad OCD, nuthin wrong with that unless

your love of the paper keeps you from going to class, grocery shopping, eating, or socializing with others!

I personally can completely understand getting off on some good paper! I love when the pen flows easily and my handwriting is perfect. I have to have at least three sheets of paper to write, otherwise the surface is too hard and my handwriting is all over the place! don't even get me started on a good pen or pencil (good pencils are harder to find than good pens) My dh and I both hate any color of pen except for black, he's even superstitious about it...will NOT write in blue ink.

we all have out little quirks...don't sweat it. (and I bet you can find the paper again!)

[Jamastiene]

26. Nah, classes sometimes make it hard for me to find time to

get things done, but I manage to get them done in time.

I prefer black ink pens too, but I will use blue and I had to use red in a couple of my classes (blueprint modifications require red only). Actually, my quirks about pens have to do with the point. I like the micropoint best. I can't stand a medium though. They leak from day one, imho.

Yes, someone else sees that having other pieces of paper under the sheet you are writing on helps make it better. I always have to take more time when I fill out paperwork at doctor's offices and other places. They always hand me a medium point ink pen in who knows what color and it's on a clipboard with a curly plastic string as if I would bother to steal that disgusting leaky medium point ink pen and there is usually only one piece of paper on the clipboard. I hate that.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

24. Sorry, can't relate at all. What the hell is notebook paper?

When I went to school, we wrote on cave walls.

and I am one of those annoying shits who takes no notes, cracks jokes all the time and does just fine on tests because I don't play the stress game.

do you hate me?

I don't hate you.

[Jamastiene]

25. Nah, I don't hate ya.

I don't stress either. I just have a real love for "school supplies". You wrote on cave walls, huh? Were you also one of those people who had to walk to school uphill both ways barefoot in a blizzard and start out at 3:00 a.m. with a cord of wood on your shoulders for the wood stove in the one room classroom after staying up until after 1:00 a.m. the night before under a harvest moon getting in all the farm crops the night before with no farm equipment other than your calloused, blistered, sore bloody hands and you were thankful for it? :D :evilgrin:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

27. how could you know that?

I must have told you this story, huh?
LOL

[Kathleen04]

28. Have fun with the start

of your semester. :) I can't wait for fall to start..we don't start until September 6th. I'm still in summer session right now.

My quirky pre-semester rituals usually consist of making my schedule wayyy far in advance. A couple days ago, I printed out the list of degree requirements and made a huge list of all the classes that I have left to take..I'm going to be a sophomore so it was quite the list. :7

[tanyev]

29. I'm sure one of my friends suspected something was seriously

wrong with me many years ago when I was gushing over the map pencils I found before another school year started. Not the short pencils with the hard color center, no, these babies were long and the coloring part was softer so you got a more intense shade of color. It was still a pencil, mind you, not a marker or a crayola, but the texture was amazing.

Ah, I should go back to school again so I can relive the joys of school supplies.