Finding the Right Planner

This just in (again): my part of Indiana has nothing.

Mum and I went to look for a planner, thinking Staples would have something in the way of organizers, only to discover that we were completely mistaken, because Staples only sells toner and printer ink now.

I remember when Staples used to be cool.

They were selling organizers, but they were all made of plastic. The plastic binders came in two colors: black, and for the fashion-forward female businessperson, red. All were bulky, giant, and only one came in the correct size, black plastic.

I am sorry, it is not hard to make an organizer nice. Just use quality materials, like reinforced fabric or leather, and you have two options that will fare well with extended use. Plastic, if it ever looks good, only does so until you drop it for the first time, at which point the cover tears or cracks, or the sprayed-on color scrapes off. If you never drop it and treat it with the utmost care, it still only lasts a few months before you've over-filled it and the strap stretches, it starts to crack from environmental exposure--the transition between cold and hot--or it just falls randomly in half like a three-ring binder of mine did once in the middle of the hallway of my college's administration building.

Never mind that a plastic organizer is an environment-killer and a fabric binder, especially one made of natural fibers, does not rip giant holes in our ozone layer and leave our children and grandchildren frying like bacon on the ravaged surface of our once-habitable planet. Heck, make the cover out of bamboo. What do I care. Just not plastic. And no calling it "vegan leather" either. This marketing does not work on me. If it is vegan, it cannot be leather. Call it what it is: plastic, and be ready to drop your price by half, because I am not paying $80.00 for a plastic planner.

So, defeated, Mum and I went to Steak and Shake for food, only to discover relish that may or may not have been poisonous. Mum was horrified, insisting that relish like this was probably going to give us cancer. She was probably right. No vegetable has ever been this color before unless exposed to high levels radiation. Relish should not match a traffic light.

And then I went home, watched my laptop crash multiple times due to Windows Update (thanks so much), and shopped online. I had narrowed my planner choices to three. One was a Filofax, which I would have loved but just couldn't afford due to the fact that the one I liked cost $76.00. Nope. Maybe someday when I invent something life-changing or am hired Librarian of the World and given several million dollars outright and a giant pay raise. The other was a Day Timer that was subdued but was made of not plastic. Sadly, it was almost as expensive. The final choice was a Kikki-K Time Planner...

kikki.K Medium Time Planner, otherwise known as the prettiest planner ever.

This is a Lilac Medium Time Planner, which just-so-happens to be 50% off right now. Also the original price is in Australian dollars, which means just paying with US dollars is like getting another discount. The size is almost the same as Filofax's Personal dimensions, meaning the impulse-bought sale planner pages from MissTiina will fit perfectly.

So, I got a planner and a bunch of matching accessories for half the Filofax price. This made me a happy Laura. Considering that I'll be able to keep using this planner instead of ditching it after a year, this will be the only big planner investment I'll need to make.

Plus think of all the cute stuff I can put in this.

I'm calling this a Valentine's Day present to myself, because I am eternally single and am unlikely to get a present from anyone else. This will make Valentine's Day less nauseating, as I'll know I've got a fancy coming in the mail soon!