27 Dresses and 365 Days of Inserts

Philofaxy’s last Free For All Friday determined how I would spend today.  I had already decided that I would take today off as a mental health day.  But when the subject of 27 Dresses came up, I decided I would watch it—I had never seen it, and so, why not?  In addition, I just got my 2013 inserts, and so what better plan could I have than to get them up and running while watching 27 Dresses?  And so, that is what I did.

First, I got all of my supplies together:

They consisted of my archival box, my personal black Guildford (in which I keep the last year’s worth of inserts), my personal ochre Malden (in which I keep the current year’s inserts while they wait their turn to be rotated into my compact), my compact wine plum Osterley (since that’s what I’m currently using), my 2013 inserts (month on two pages and day per page), and my pen bag (this was a recent Barnes & Noble purchase—owls!).

Then I moved any 2011 inserts that were in my Guildford to my archival box.

Last year I used the two pages per day inserts.  Since there are so many sheets to that style, they were already in the archival box.

To them I added the month on two pages inserts and the week on two pages inserts I had bought (and never used).  All together, the entire 2011 inserts stack takes up quite a bit of room in my archival box.

Someday I’ll need to move these into a bigger box.  But for now, this will do.

From here, I moved the first half of 2012 into the Guildford—the January to June monthly and daily pages, as well as the week on two pages (again, never used—I didn’t even bother buying the weekly pages this year).  I labeled each of the sections for easy access should I need to look back at a specific date. 

I also added the second half (July through December) of 2013 to this binder, as I won’t need them until January.  Those I separated with a Today marker and added a tab to that to tell me what’s behind it.

Then, I took what I needed down to the living room to watch the (Philofaxy) famous 27 Dresses.

While watching, I got the 2013 inserts all prepared.

I outlined each month—since there is a preview of the prior and next months, outlining makes it easy for me to distinguish the current month.

I also added birthdays and anniversaries to the corresponding dates, pay days, holidays, days that the library is closed, and any other pertinent information for 2013.  I then put January through June daily sheets into the ochre Malden and put January through June monthly sheets in the Osterley (I always carry a year’s worth of monthly sheets in the compact—I can only carry two to three month’s worth of daily sheets in here, so  this helps with future planning).

When January comes along, I will once again rotate inserts—the second half of 2012 will be put into the Guildford and the necessary 2013 sheets will be placed into the Malden, waiting their turn to be rotated into whatever compact I will be using at that time.

Now I can start to add items to my 2013 calendar.  And believe me, there are already a few items that need to be added as soon as they are figured out.

As for the movie, it’s your typical chick-flick, romantic comedy: girl and boy live in New York City, girl and boy meet, they don’t get along, then they do, one falls for the other, then something happens where they are stuck in some kind of predicament together, they have an ah-ha moment, they kiss, something blows up in one’s face (usually a misunderstood event caused by the other), then a sincere apology is made, the hurt one realizes they in fact love the other, he or she chases down the other, they kiss again, and fall madly in love.  Sometimes there is even a wedding involved.  And so it goes.

However, as we all know, this rom-com is special because of the Filofax’s place in the movie.  For anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, the main character (Katherine Heigl) is a type A wedding-obsessed girl who uses a trusty Filofax (rumored to be a personal Topaz) to keep all of her wedding related duties (she is a bridesmaid 27 times) organized.  I find fault with this part of the story—if she relied on her Filofax as much as the movie let on, she would have been in complete and utter panic when she realizes it has gone missing.  Instead, she can’t find it, asks a few people, and goes on with her life, merely accepting that it will one day in fact turn up (which of course it does—boy has held it hostage).  If I were to ever lose my Filo (I mean really lose it, not just having left it at work), I would be out of my mind with worry!  At the end of the movie, she is given an electronic gizmo to keep her organized instead of a “1980’s Filofax.”  She doesn’t even argue!  Most of us use paper planners because we like to, not because we just haven’t yet moved into the 21^st century.  (Note: I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with electronic organizers; I merely making a point about the movie.)  I just found her “love” of the Filofax to be a little lacking.  Clearly, she (nor the creator of the movie) has ever visited the Philofaxy blog.

Maybe I should go into the movie business and make my own movie about a paper planner—what as adventure that would be!