Note to Self

I always know exactly what I want to write in the moment that I am not near my computer to get it out. A story will just scroll through my head and I'm not composing it, I'm just hearing it and I always panic and think, "ACK! Don't forget this! Don't forget this!" and I'll do what I can with a hasty scribble in my moleskin but then the next day, when I'm actually at my computer, alas! The moment is lost. And not even the snippet is enough to reclaim it. Storytime happens most often at parties and in the shower, two situations in which it would be slightly uncomfortable pulling out a notebook and scribbling frantically away. And even when I try that, I can barely keep up with the stream of prose racing through my mind. Times like that I wish I had a tape-recorder on my person. Because THAT wouldn't make me look like a freak, pulling out my tape-recorder over dinner and observing out loud: "I've always wanted to be in a situation where 'the talk turned to politics,' and now here I am at a dinner table full of men discussing just that: politics. And with genuine interest, not just because That's What Intelligent Men Should Do at Dinnertime. And they aren't necessarily political types like the sort you encounter frequently in San Francisco, with soapboxes and passionate viewpoints that they drill into their audiences with pounding fists and righteous blogs. These are just normal people. Discussing politics over their veal." And then I will put my tape-recorder away and join back in the conversation with, "What? Why are you all looking at me?"