What if you were to keep a journal of your experiences and observations, as they related to numbers?
This is the question I posed to some friends, and here is the collective NUMBERS JOURNAL they produced, over the course of a few days at the end of May and the beginning of June, 2012:
1 felled oak, 200 rings young
6 tubes on our wind chime
12 cat toys on the living room floor, most of which the cat doesn't play with anymore
24 eyelets in my white sneakers
9 blossoms on the pink orchid I got when I retired four years ago
11 white whiskers on the face of our sixteen-year-old black cat
2 possibilities for dinner; I choose both
161 steps to the top — perhaps another day
17,904 days have passed since I opened the first door
5,000 pounds of spinach in my refrigerator that I should eat instead of these chips
1 new favorite song titled Shampoo for no reason I can discern
13 slinky felines taking up space in a dream that isn't even about them
3 hours of sleep when I was hoping for 7 or 9 . . . stupid cats
8 matches for "cats" in the dream dictionary
1 peculiar symptom that Web MD says could be 14 terrible things or 1 boring thing
1 secret explodes violently all over the ice cream parlor, forever tainting Madigan Mint
27 of the most perfect dogs I've ever seen distract me with riveting gazes and perked ears so I don't realize until too late that mine is peeing exactly where she shouldn't
7 huge books about neurofeedback, that I don't remember requesting, arrive from inter-library loan
4 more weeks need to pass before I can return the books and still look like I read them
114 bees find their way into my house and only I know how I got them out with 0 stings
24 years of getting away with being a parent without any qualifications
1 nanosecond between the right decision and the wrong one … still unsure which was which
24 items on my lost shopping list but I only remember the water balloons
5 dollars for this clever wrinkle trick that will enrage Botox doctors, now revealed [yet not revealed]
0 interest have I in Botox but infinite interest in strangely worded, enigmatic sentences
45 minutes spent finessing my numbers journal at work when I have actual work I should be doing
2 swings at the lake, filled with a total of seven people
1 new mystery sculpture waiting under cover, to be unveiled, for finishing touches, for presentation, who knows?
1 sailboat, 15 Canadian geese, and 6 pair of ducks on the lake this afternoon
12 blocks straight ahead, then turn left, walk 3 more and find 1 friend who presents me with 2 sets of 60 cards each
1 very well made bird's nest, filled with four beautiful blue robin's eggs, on the 10th rung of the stored ladder
35 pots on the deck, filled with vegetables for health, and flowers for the soul
4 indoor birds singing along with the outdoor birds they can hear through the open window
8 cranberry walnut scones ready in time for breakfast
1 power outage that lasts 7 hours
15 friends around a backyard campfire
3 nights in a row, the cat skips dinner
4 eggs sink, 1 floats, is it rotten?
1 cardinal lands on a branch
2 goldfinches chase each other in the sky
10 small tables inside Gimme Coffee, all filled; no one wants to sit outside in the heat today
4 hours of sleep last night was not enough
2 geese and 10 goslings in 1 straight line
1 dollar bill lying in the wet grass
24 blueberries dropped into the pancake batter
4 seeds in my seedless piece of watermelon
2 Tibetan monks carrying heavy shopping bags on Cayuga Street
6 teens smoking next to a NO SMOKING sign
2 strangers laughing so hard in the diner that I start laughing too
2 little boys having a light-saber duel in front of the library
18 purple irises in front of the house where my friend used to live
2 broken clocks and 1 broken watch in the same week
22 Toyotas in the parking lot
1 kernel of popcorn stuck between my tight back molars
3 profoundly disturbing traumatic revelations in a 15-minute conversation with an old friend
4 pairs of eyeglasses in my pocketbook
1/2 scoop of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia low fat frozen yogurt
Contributors:
Barbara Cartwright
Alice Damp
Carla DeMello
Barbara Kane Lewis
Charlotte Sweeney
Lynne Taetzsch
Barbara West
Zee Zahava
