Distilled Goodness

U.S. News and World Report suggests keeping a simple diary as #20 in the "50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2009" cover story.

"Distill your day's experiences into a single sentence each day. Call it a "clothes hanger" journal: It provides a framework on which to hang the larger raiments of memory. A few well-chosen words can transport you back to where you were days or years ago. And-if you're persistent-it can show you the shape of your life over time."

I absolutely adore this idea! Unfortunately since I am not and never will be a woman of few words, and because I have so much clutter littering my mental landscape, and because so much happens in a "typical" day this task seems overwhelmingly daunting.

So yesterday's distilled entry could have read something like this, "Detroit is a scary place and I am glad I do not have to live there or get accosted by the butch half of an African-American pregnant lesbian couple or the the socket wrench-wielding man at the stoplight."

If I could condense it further, and if I were a better word weaver, perhaps I could find a way to also include that I really enjoy days that my mother keeps David; I don't enjoy cleansing melted chocolate from the entire contents of my purse, including my iPod, in a public restroom; I wish someone would just confess to putting their fundraiser packet in the fridge in order to ensure it grabbed my attention fully; Enchilada soup isn't nearly as good in the crockpot; and that was a reeeeeeally good book I started reading before bed last night.