It was the 1990’s when the Franklin Planner craze began.  My wonderful sister in law, an extremely organized human being and the complete opposite of me, had this HUGE Franklin Planner that went everywhere with her.  It contained her entire life, her schedule, her husband’s schedule, work, vacations, receipts, you name it, all in one well organized volume.  It was quite the racket – every year you had to go to Franklin Planner Store to get another years worth of pages and things to organize yourself even more than you ever dreamed.

Coincidently, there was a term going around to describe people who were, shall we say, a bit uptight.  Anal retentive, or anal for short.  And as much as I loved my sister in law, it was just a tad anal of her to live with this planner which I nicknamed the butt book.  All in jest of course. Never in a million years would I ever own such a book.  Flash forward about 25 years.

My butt book isn’t nearly as large as hers but it contains my life.  Every meeting, vacation, family get together, husband’s games, children’s birthdays, it’s there.  I admit it – I’m anal too.  For at least 25 years I have been documenting every little tiny event in this silly little book, which now gets transferred to my plan book, to my desk calendar and to the calendar on my fridge.  And now, thanks to pressure from my techie friends and family I also have it on the calendars on my phone and laptop swirling somewhere inside some cloud that I can’t begin to understand.  It is pretty cool that I can put something on my phone and it just shows up on the laptop, but I’ll never admit that to them.

Why do this?  Because I’m the girl who can’t say no.  They say (not sure who THEY are)  that if you want something done, find a busy person, right?  This is not completely accurate.  You don’t find someone who is busy, you find someone who can’t say no – that’s why they’re busy.

I am a full time teacher.  This includes multiple mandatory meetings and a couple of choir rehearsals during the week on top of teaching 500 of my favorite students, all on the calendar.  Then there’s helping to organize our district general music PLC meetings.  That’s a new one (thanks Boss).  I was asked to be the union rep for my school which was supposed to be a temporary gig as I’m now beginning year three. (Wish I had said no). I am the liaison for the N.Y. Metropolitan Opera for our district so that students can see opera streamed live several times a year.  Ok, I like this one and who could say no to trips to New York?  I also serve on a national board for music education and yes, I applied to run for this and won.  I’m really kind of competitive and really hoped for this opportunity.  More for the calendar.

Please don’t mistake this as bragging or complaining or anything else.  The book merely represents my life and the life of my family, good or bad, busy or calm.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed just looking at the schedule and other times, particularly during June I just breathe as I look at all the empty days on the calendar.

So, the calendars are really just a reminder for me so I don’t forget stuff I have to do.  The work load for all of these calendar items is ridiculous and for a person who is naturally unorganized, it can be a struggle.  And I wonder why I’m exhausted all the time.  On the other hand, there have been moments of such joy because of the opportunities and dates on these calendars.  Celebrating my grandson’s adoption, celebrating my kid’s birthdays, watching my husband do what he loves doing on a Saturday afternoon on a football field, meals with friends, and yes, studying at the Met, traveling and meeting people from all over the country who share a passion for what I do, learning and contributing where I can.  Those are the details that never make it on the calendar but are the things that make me glad that I’m just a girl who can’t say no.