Notebook Crazy

October 15, 09


Last month at our Close of Service conference the topic of readjustment in America was brought up and we all laughed at silly stories that people heard. We had a nice chuckle about the girl who cried when she couldn’t decide which cheesecake to choose at the Cheesecake Factory, and the lady who stood frozen in shock in the produce section at Whole Foods Market.

We’re aware that Americans have gazillions of things to choose from, where as out here your standard product is it, but it’s hard to get the full feeling until you’re in the situation.

“I just don’t see that happening to us,” my friend Halley said.

“I know! I can’t see myself in a situation like that,” I replied. “I mean that’s just weird.”

Then this week I received a package from my fabulous aunts in Ohio full of wonderful surprises. And among the granola bars and instant oatmeal were two composition notebooks. TWO.

I sat on the floor of my room and stared at the notebooks.

One was green, and one was black. Which one did I want for my Russian vocabulary? Green or black?

The green one is more beautiful. But the green notebook was “wide-ruled” and the black notebook was “college ruled”.

Did I want wide-ruled or college ruled? What was better? Wide or College?

Okay, I thought…maybe one has more pages than the other. So I sat there and counted the pages. Both notebooks had 100 pages.

Okay…maybe there’s more lines in the black notebook than the green notebook. So I sat there and counted the lines. The black notebook had 32 and the green had 25.

But the green notebook was “wide-ruled”! Was that better?

Okay…maybe the pages in the green notebook are thinner than the pages in the black notebook.

So I sat there and individually felt the pages in each notebook, trying to decipher if one’s were flimsier than the other.

And then I realized forty minutes had passed and I was crazy.

In the end, the green notebook’s pages really were thinner.

I chose the black one.

Dear America People: when I return to your lovely country, please don’t ask me to make any decisions.

Thanks.

Love, Angela