Where's your Binder Reminder?

jonah keeps his right here.

"Binder Reminder" is the cute little name for the datebook given out to all highschool students to keep track of their studies and sports. it's got the school logo on its cover and nancy loves the way 'don't forget your Binder Reminder!' sounds so much better than 'get your fucking homework done." nancy thinks the Binder Reminder *dresses up* what could be an unpleasant or challenging concept. the happy rhyming words make the odious task of remembering to study for that math quiz or show up for the 7am 5K seem FUN! and the space for writing is really really small...so you can't fill it up with lots of junk. you have to pare it down BEFORE you write, so even the act of fitting all your important stuff into a 1.5x1.5 inch square box gets you organized right away!

Organizationally Gifted Daughter takes to this like a Jewish princess to Marc Jacobs. she has hers with her at all times,
in fact, at this moment it's IN her Marc Jacobs bag. today, May 22nd, like every other day is crammed with homework assignments, errands to run, phonecalls to make....reminders galore that give Maddy a real leg up on her day.
and what she can't fit in here, she puts on her White Board at home. and what doesn't fit on her White Board she makes her mother remember or her father pay for.

in contrast to his sister--like complementary colors, as yellow is to purple, like yin is to yang -- Organizationally Challenged Son keeps his Binder Reminder on the floor of the front seat of mom's car.
nothing has been entered since early April except for a "reminder" to himself that it's his birthday.
since we like to think of ourselves as a supportive family who embraces diversity (and we're so good at wearing even bad things well and we don't like to be too matchy/matchy with our outfits or our personalities) we consider it progress that anything has been entered at all. moreover, we fully accept and almost appreciate the zen quality of jonah's empty binder reminder. that's why, it remains yet again on the floor of mom's car getting trampled by feet in late May next to his Spanish book which hasn't been opened since February. Unphased by this, the human Binder Reminder daughter/sister faithfully and sweetly asks organizationally challenged brother: Don't you need your Binder Reminder? and proud mom watches her teens tumble out of the car as he says for the 47th day in a row: No.

and jonah walks off without his Binder Reminder. but we tried. and we'll try again tomorrow.
Is this love or enabling? optimism or codependence? hope springs eternal and the glass half full?
or a form of OCD in one kid, ADD/sociopathy in the other and a mom with a little too much magical thinking.
makes you wonder, is it possible to secrete TOO MUCH serotonin? should i not find this all so Positive...and cute?
as long as we're pathologizing, maybe it's that oft-invoked definition of insanity that bitter bummer ex-father-in-law Grandpa12Step likes to spew - the one about doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results.

all nancy notices is that they leave the car happy, together...and thoroughly entertaining.
still fighting the good sibling fight. resilient and hopeful.
saying Bye mom, i love you. see you at 3.
and all joking aside, nancy thinks this looks and IS pretty great.
the fact that they watch out for each other makes nancy wear a very big smile.
corny as it sounds, she drives out of the morning school traffic with a full happy heart filled with the humor and great goofy love of her kids from whom she always learns so much. whether it's how to stay away from weird hats--you don't wanna become a Weird Hat Mom and they'll let you know if you are. or how to stay a kind, hopeful, loving person despite the occasional Shut up you Fucktard. all this makes nancy feel like maybe she's doing a good job with them. or maybe she's just lucky--like being born with a fast metabolism. but right now nancy feesl pretty darn good about the People her kids are becoming from the inside out, binder reminders or not, as she drives home in the wrinkled clothes she slept in last night.

which brings us to....
today nancy is wearing a white linen shirt and a cotton blend strawberry shake colored sweater. just like the shake she got jonah from In n Out burger last night at 10:30pm. she wears a fleur de lis around her neck from new orleans that reminds her of those st. christophers she always wanted as a teen but couldn't get cuz she was jewish in mar vista. she's wearing levi jeans that are a weird light weight of denim but have a nice, flattering taper to the leg. as far as sleeping in clothes, this was an excellent choice, not that she thought about it much, being somewhat drowsy after enjoying an ice cold pale yellow Kumquat Sake after work with a Benedryl chaser to get the buzzing out of her ears from the flight home from New Orleans two days ago. but the outfit, such as it is, wears the wrinkles well. as we all know, linen is of course GREAT for that, the more wrinkled the better. the more disheveled the sexier! and FYI, nancy found the light weight denim far more comfortable to sleep in than the indigo dyed firmer denim of her cropped japanese brand jeans which have a more snug fit but leave painful and unattractive indentations on your skin in the morning. here are those jeans in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton, New Orleans. in the spirit of Jonah's binder reminder which only shows his birthday, nancy has cropped the shot of the cropped jeans because nancy didn't like her face in this picture. and she was wearing a weird Mom Hat. she's learned something from jonah's minimalist binder reminder -- just crop out the bad stuff and keep the good!!