A week or so ago,  I stopped by Barnes and Noble to buy a gift for a colleague and friend who is a captive in HealthSouth Rehabilitation Center while she recuperates from injuries suffered in a terrible auto accident CAUSED BY A DISTRACTED DRIVER. (Renae, are you paying attention?)

Anyway, while browsing I found a journal of sorts that invites participants to record their way to finding their best selves – over a two-year period. (Sorry, but after all this time spent looking for that elusive person, I want it to happen NOW, not in 24 more months. I am running out of time!)

If you opened this thick hardbound book, you would find the same 6 questions, recorded in two different columns on each page. The idea is that you answer the questions in one column over the course of a year, and then write reflections about the same subjects in the second column the following year; hoping, I guess, that your responses will show growth.

A different set of questions are interjected quarterly – I can’t remember what those queries were, but here are the main six probes, along with my responses for Friday, May 14, 2010.

1. What did I do today?
   
   1. Ventured off to work
   2. lost my wallet
   3. searched the car for my wallet
   4. searched Barnes & Noble, my office, and parking lot for my wallet
   5. found my wallet waiting for me at the receptionist’s desk because some wonderful, honest citizen discovered it on the pavement and turned it in, COMPLETE with my nearly-expired license, credit cards, discount cards, and $5 freakin’ dollars
2. What did I feel today?
   1. like it’s time for someone to commit me to the care of an asylum for the incurably LOST – as in LOST phoneS, LOST glasses, LOST mind, LOST sanity!
3. What was I grateful for today?
   1. The wonderful, honest, kind stranger who took pity on a lonely and shabby gray wallet with a dozen rectangles of plastic crammed into the front pocket – along with a McDonald’s receipt and that FIVE DOLLAR BILL
   2. and this cool picture I took of a goose, who recently returned from  southern somewhere. I actually snapped it a couple of weeks ago outside of SOUTH Towne Mall – yes, the mall; he was obviously waiting with the goslings while his wife shopped inside. Welcome back, Gander!
4. What was my biggest challenge?
   1. 3 guesses!
5. How will I overcome it?
   1. Other than the COMMIT RENAE idea, I have NO clue what to do with my OBLIVIOUSNESS. Any ideas? Please come forth!
6. What did I savor?
   1. The pepperoni and mozzarella on adagio cheese pretzel celebration-of-finding-my-wallet sandwich! VERY satisfying AND soothing!

Now if I answer these questions EVERYDAY for 2 years, would I see progress towards becoming my best self, OR will it be a CRAZY, DIZZYING decent into TOTAL – versus partial – OBLIVION?????

(Want to get caught up on “what I read today?” Go HERE and scroll down to the May 14th section of the page. This book is so intriguing. I love the characters, especially the mom, and Roth’s chilly re-creation of history is fascinating. I think he really lived through this experience in an alternate universe!)