red notebook '09

(This is a repost form the depressing day of November 10, 2009. The infamous red notebook has still never been recovered.)

The title of this blog is a spoof and tribute to one of my favorite songs as a teenager = Blue Comb '78
It was a song from probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite band as a kid, the amazing and incomparable Five Iron Frenzy. Those guys were sick! (back then... now when I hear them I just have to chuckle a little...) They were kind of like a crazy punk rock band with a lot of ska mixed in and a lot of funny too.

Blue Comb '78 was a song that was a tribute as well as a search for something that was lost. That something which was lost was described as "the last great symbol of my youth." and it was a blue comb "bought with some money from my mom and my dad. Light blue in color, I could never have another comb like that, big and fat..."

The plea of the song, in an utter angst from deep in the soul, was "Tell me, have you seen my comb?!?!?" It's called Blue Comb '78 because 1978 is when Reese Roper lost his prized blue comb as a 5 year old boy "Somewhere on I-70" because of "a sibling lacking coothe". It turns out he never got that exact blue comb back (Although now it "might be brown from lying on the ground") but the band did receive tens of thousands of blue combs in the mail through their career!

This blog is a play off of that song. My plea is very similar. "Tell me, have you seen my notebook!?!?!"

Here's the story as short as I can make it. I have... had... a red notebook. I think it said "NUDGE" on the front... along with some other words smaller like "dance. pray. laugh." or something like that?

I started using it around 2 years ago and it was basically FULL. FULL of all my notes, all my thoughts. If you know me you know that I am a conference/podcast/reading JUNKIE! Learning is my drug/addiction. So, I have had this red notebook with everywhere I go (literally) for the past 2 years. And I had filled it up with all my learnings, thoughts, ideas, takeaways, etc... from podcasts, books on cd/iPod, and conferences!

The most "controversial" use of the notebook is that for 2 years it has been in my car. I have gone through MANY books on my iPod over the last 2 years and I take notes the whole time while I am driving. I perfected it so i didn't really have to take my eyes off the road much and can write pretty neat with the little arm rest/desk set up in my caddy. I have listened to literally over 1,000 podcasts in my car and write notes on them while driving.

There is so much of my brain in that notebook. And recently I LOST IT!!! I have looked for it in every place I can find and no luck. I have turned my house, my car, and all my places of work upside down looking for it... still can't find it.
In the last 2 weeks I have been coming to terms with the reality that it may simply be gone forever. and that hurts. it really hurts. it knocks the breath out of me. It feels like I fell on my back off of a semi- tall ledge. I really get short of breath when I think about all that is lost with that notebook. kind of like a computer crashing and nothing is backed up.

***SO, I am asking all of you HAVE YOU SEEN MY NOTEBOOK?!?!? 
I really hope you have. If you have found it or see it somewhere please let me know! I feel like a reward would definitely be in order for you... both from God and me. : )

[btw - just found out Five Iron Frenzy is coming out with a film this winter! 6 years after their retirement! I'm so stoked. take me back to my high school days... i bet I might have made it on the film because I was front row for at least 3 of their shows!]

drop me a comment to cheer me up or to give me the great news that you've seen it or found it!!!