An Explosion of Journals

I love journals.

I love the smell.

I love the crinkle, crackle sound when you first open them up.

I love how they feel as I hold one in my hands.

I love thumbing thru the pages, both the blank ones yet to be written upon, and the ones that have had creativity spewed forth upon them.

I even love writing in them...

I am a journal nerd.

I am not quite sure why, but recently, especially in the last year or so, I've really felt a need to keep one. I made the mistake of sharing that information with my wife today. She asked,

"So what's this sudden fascination with journal keeping and blogging?"

"I'm not sure," I replied, "I just feel an urgency to keep a record of my life."

She stopped stirring her tuna to look at me, a shocked and worried look on her face. I replied:

"It's not like I'm planning to die or anything..."

"Nobody PLANS on dying...they just die!"

She's right, I suppose. I guess you can't find a journal entry such as:

July 31, 2009

Today was a great day! I got to eat jelly bellies and peanut butter. Also got to watch the police chase a little person!

Tomorrow I'm going to die...

I honestly don't think that the reason I want to write is because of some revelation that my time in this life is drawing to a close. I just feel that it's an important thing that I need to do.

I guess I shouldn't have used the word "urgent".

But I digress. Back to journals...

My love for journals goes back to when I was a kid, I now have many, as you can tell by the image above. Some are still blank, just waiting to be filled. Others have various doodles and writings, notes from meetings, and sketches of various brain farts. Oddly enough, whether full, empty or somewhere in between, I love each and everyone that I own.

The ones that I love the most however, are the ones that I have made myself. It all started about five years ago...

I was in Salt Lake City at a conference for an LDS religion class that I would be teaching later that year, and I was in Deseret Book looking for a cool handmade journal to begin keeping one. I found a nice one called the "Parley Journal". It was really nice, but, at almost 40 dollars, a tad more than I wanted to spend.

But then I got to thinking...maybe I could make one. The prospect seemed simple enough.

I started my first journal with a roll of brown craft paper, the back on an old notepad and some parchment that I purchased at Staples. It actually didn't turn out half bad. I tore the page edges, sewed all of the signatures, glued them together and created the cover. It took longer that I thought it would, but not bad, and easier than I thought it would be. All in all, not a bad looking journal. Making one wasn't bad, how about 20 or so for my students?

So off I went on a journal making spree, tearing edges, sewing and gluing pages, making covers. All in time for Christmas break,

They were a huge hit with the students.

I was now hooked on journal making.

I was now a journal MAKING nerd.

I have made many journals since those first 21 or so, some with paper covers, some with leather. Some with lined pages, some without; regular paper, parchment paper...you name it. Every journal that I have made have been a delight to do. Each one is unique, and I hope valued by it's owner.

I am a journal nerd.