Strange Things I Appreciate

I like to carry a pad of paper with me* to record todos or names of things I might want to get someone for Christmas, let's say. I found these aluminum-encased Memo Mates a few years ago and took a shine to them. They come with a pen that is part of the clasp that keeps them shut. I've gone through a few because once in awhile I bend one beyond redemption and need a new one that is flat and sleek enough to slide in and out of my pocket without ripping my pants or getting caught in a seam.

When I purchased my last one, I opened to find a message from someone - sometwo, actually:

I don't know why, but I like this sort of thing. I remember my cousin Mary setting messages in bottles afloat in Lake Ontario many years ago after finding one. I've left notes in books on slips of paper, written, "why are you looking at this" on the undersides of desks and shelves, and dropped a few messages in bottles myself. A friend of mine sent a notebook off into the mail once with the instructions to write on one page and mail it to someone else they knew. I wonder where that is now and what is written in it. Maybe it's at the bottom of a sock drawer, maybe it is still circulating.

(* My father once told me that in a staff meeting his commanding officer chided his fellow officers for being unprepared. The commander said that all officers should carry, "a pen and paper and $5." Someone had the temerity to ask what the $5 was for, to which the commanding officer responded, "an officer in the US Army should be able to buy himself a sandwich when he wants to." In honor of my father and this commander, I try to follow the advice - but my $5 is the debit card I carry, and lunch has got a little more expensive since the Vietnam War.)