I’ve decided that I like paper. I mean, anyone coming into my office and taking one look at my desk would swear I was addicted to piles of paper, but just piling up paper’s not the fun stuff to do with it. A little while back, I put together a little town made up of paper. It took me a couple days, but it sure was fun just cutting it out and scoring it and bending it and holding it together while the glue set up. I like making stuff like that with paper. Paper chains, paper ribbons, paper boxes, paper clocks, paper flowers, paper fish… The list goes on. Making stuff with paper is fun.

I like coloring paper too. Crayola.com has all sorts of fun coloring pages, and sometimes I get coloring books. Half the time I just color freehand or doodle or draw or sketch or whatever you want to call it. I have notebooks with tons of little scribblings in the margins, and there are all sorts of nonsensical pictures scattered throughout the pages. Drawing is fun!

I think the thing I use the most paper on is writing though. I’m forever taking notes (well, less so now that I’m not in any classes), writing poetry, writing book excerpts, writing my ideas, writing writing writing. I piled up some notebooks that I had written poetry in, and the stack was pretty high. I go through notebooks and paper like … well, kind of like toilet paper. I just go through it on a day-to-day basis in droves because I write a lot.

And of course none of this includes all the books I have. Ah, the musty dusty smell of used books. The fresh gluey scent of new books. The feel of glossy pages, recycled pages, old pages, and yellowed pages under my fingers is awesome. I don’t think I could ever get into e-books because the tactile part of reading just isn’t there. The smell’s gone, the format’s all different. Gimme a book and I’m happy. Unless it’s chemistry. 😉

Speaking of paper, I have to get to class because I’m collecting some of their papers and I’m handing some out. What a vicious cycle! What would I do if trees became obsolete?