Dated or Non-dated?

In October, I get excited because it is time to choose my planner for the coming year.

Before there was Amazon, I would go to all the major office supply chains. I knew them all by heart and knew which kinds of planners were usually in each store. Sometimes I would go to the local Office supply stores like the wonderful Atlas Stationers, here in Chicago. Back in the day you would find me at "Order From Horder." There were also the Franklin Covey stores peppered throughout the city and suburbs. For many years I used a Franklin Covey Planner, going all the way back to when it was just the Franklin Planner (before the Covey merger.) It was just a catalog then. There were also Daytimers and Filofaxes. If you ever had the pleasure of visiting an actual Filofax store it was a definite treat. The high end of planners. There also was the Levengers brand at Macy's. I am not sure if it is still there.

Now with Amazon, I can shop for planners and planner supplies in the comfort of my own home and anytime I please. And ironically, this year, I chose a planner that you can't find on Amazon and maybe that is why it's extra special. I am currently using the Commit30 planner and its only available at their website.

So when it comes down to it, you have two choices. You can use the traditional dated planner or a non-dated planner.

I like a dated planner because the entire year is already laid out for me. But I have found value in non-dated planners as well. The obvious value of the non-dated planner is that you can start using it any time you wish. There are tons of these kind of planners and some of the planner companies that sell them, sell nothing BUT non-dated planners. One of the things I don't like about some of these companies is that they will sell a 90 day planner which means you have to buy FOUR of them to fill the year.

So it's a dated planner for me. There are many kinds from simple date books to full on life planning with extra pages and worksheets to help you with your life goals. There are planners that gear towards business and some that are more personal and journal like. There are fitness planners and financial planners. These days there seems to be a planner for everything and everyone.

So go over to Amazon and take a look at all the possibilities. I will be reviewing several of them soon and hope this can be a place where you can compare different planners to help you pick out the one that is right for you.

Christmas in a Snow Covered Town

Ghosts

I love paranormal tv shows and it was on one of these shows that the phenomena of "orbs" was presented to me. As they showed the video and I saw the "orb," I gasped. That is what I used to see when I was a little kid! But I didn't just see ONE of them, I saw a bunch of them and they would come to me in the night. They were little colored sparks of light that floated around me. I could gather them up with my hands and they would scatter and then come together again. This occured when I was very young maybe 4 years old, but I remember it clearly and as I got older, the visits were fewer and fewer. Years and years later when I was in my early 50's I had just been hired as a visual designer at IBM. I was so grateful because I had been unemployed for a long time and this was an amazing opportunity and quite a milestone in my life. I was happy and excited and that night, guess who came to visit. The colored lights crept up and over the blankets and greeted me.

We had a ghost in the house I grew up in.

I saw it once pass by the doorway to a walk in closet that had closets on both sides. The apparation that was white and as clear as can be quickly passed from one closet to the other. My brother Brad stood, mouth agape as I ran downstairs more excited than scared.

My Mother and sister saw an apparition step up from our sunken living room, turn and ascend the mahogany staircase leading to the second floor.

As I got older and ventured into adulthood and had homes of my own, I would sense things. I always felt like I wasn't alone in the room.

One time I was at the Fine Arts building, an historic old landmark in Chicago. As I was coming around the stairs I saw a man in 19th century clothes and a hat walk out from the door to the elevator, cross the hall and disappear into the doorway to an office. It was exactly what you would expect. It was transparent and ghostly. I swear it was real. It was real as can be. And I just stood there looking and then shrugged it off. This kind of stuff never scared me.

One time I was washing the dishes and the cupboard door just opened on its own.

I walked into the bedroom once and heard my deceased cat, Sam meow a cheery hello. It was him. It was a full on meow and it made me smile. I have also seen shadow pets walk around my legs.

Fortunately I have never conjured up evil spirits. Mine are peaceful. They just pass through just as curious of me as I am of them.

The only time I was ever scared, I was staying at someones home in Nashville and he told me the house was haunted. Intrigued I asked him about it and he said that there was the spirit of a young girl with a blue face. He said that she would come up to you and just stare at you. Well, I can tell you that when I went to bed (in the room where she was frequently seen) I was nervous. I really didn't want to turn my head and see her looking down at me while I laid in bed.

Most people don't believe it. And I guess they aren't hardwired to believe it. And I bet they would say that my wires were definitely crossed or altogether unplugged for that matter.