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The Purple Squishy Car in the Moleskine

On Monday morning, before leaving Lancaster (yeah, I know, I never announced that we'd be spending Labor Day weekend in Lancaster, PA, but the evidence that we did is on Flickr), I requested to be dropped off at the Borders Outlet for a while. I was still in a "need soothing" mode, and a wander around a bookstore with my Favorite Early Music playlist seemed like just the ticket. It wasn't, really; outlets aren't the same as real bookstores because the selection is random, and the shelving more so, but I tried to make the best of it and not let the chaos get to me.

The good news was that when I approached the register with a few books for the Beaner, I noticed a display of marked-down Moleskines. I bought several, including two of the classic unlined style. When the Beaner saw me unwrap one, he said, "Is that for ME?", and he sounded so excited that I said, "yes, it is." I figured that even though he already has a zillion handy-dandy notebooks, a Moleskine would be kind of special, and since I had two, it wasn't a big deal to part with one.

Our next stop was Miller's Smorgasboard (for a good stomach-stuffing before heading back to reality), but it wasn't open yet, so the Beaner and I sat at a table outside reading his new books and drawing in our Moleskines. I drew a picture of him; he requested sketches of Daddy and Mommy, and I obliged. He drew some colorful scribbles and a sketch of me.

That afternoon, after we arrived home, we did some more reading and drawing in the basement. I gave the Beaner a purple pencil to draw with, and he gave me an orange one. A few minutes later, he announced, "look, it's my purple squishy car!", and damn if it wasn't.

Meanwhile, it should not be surprising that my Moleskine so far has mostly words in it, rather than drawings. My drawing abilities are slim, and I like to doodle rather than sketch—and I'd much rather write down funny snippets of overheard conversations or brilliant ideas than either doodle or sketch. Regardless, I think I'll be setting aside Moleskine time for me and the Beaner on a fairly regular basis. It's fun to put down our ideas together.