- Intro sentence-a-day diary container
- Sample1st day sentence-a-day diary container
- 2nd day sentence-a-day diary container
The genesis of my sentence-a-day diary
In 2014, my Red Hat Content Team co-worker and friend, Arrie, told me about a "sentence-a-day diary" that she kept. One sentence. Every day.
Earlier, in January of that year, I had stopped writing blog entries after having a blog entry every day for 10 years, and I missed not having an impetus to write daily, so I saw this as a perfect solution.
Over the years, keeping this diary has led to this serendipity:- It's fun when it happens that the same thing, or some related things, happen on the same day across many of the years. For instance, one day I noticed that my all but one of my 9 years of entries for that day mentioned food! ?
- It's been helpful many times when I wondered when I did something, or did something last, and I look back and actually find it. For instance, I usually mention it on the days I get a haircut, and I can easily look back to see when I got my last one. Or if I'm mailing something (in the U.S. mail) and I think I might wonder one day, "What day did I mail that?" I'll easily find it.
- I've become an expert at using semicolons—your friend in making very long sentences when a lot of highlights have filled your day.
A lot of entries are personal, which is to say I occasionally talk about people I interacted with during the day that isn't fit for public consumption, but I checked the very first two entries I did and there's no harm done in them, so I've shared them here on the other two tabs, respectively.
Also, if you're interested in starting one of your own using this format, here's a Google docs template to get you started.
This is the first entry of my sentence-a-day diary, which I started on my 57th birthday and the day I retired—the first time.
You'll see from this 9-year snapshot of the day that I like to do big things on my birthday, including retiring the first time, knee replacement surgery in 2021, and retiring (yes, again!) on my 2022 birthday.
You'll also see that a firm grasp on semicolons can be your biggest ally to keep your entry to once sentence.
October 13
2014 Monday: Today I gave myself the (57th) birthday gift of a lifetime. I retired.
2015 Tuesday: I freelanced for most of the day, and then Bob and I met Joe (Chason) and Todd (Clayton) for dinner at Outback, followed by (banana!) cake and ice cream back at Bob’s.
2016 Thursday: Joe treated me (and Bob) to dinner at Virgil's Original Taqueria for my birthday.
2017 Friday: I completed the final entry of my series of life reflections by decade, Bob hosted a fantastic birthday happy hour for me, with close to 30 people in attendance, and we got to Flex after 10, because people just wouldn’t leave the house. ?
2018 Saturday: Mom told me “to have my birthday off, that she was going to stay in tonight, but went out at 3:30 p.m. and when she wasn’t home by 10:11 p.m., I called the VFW to find her there playing bingo; Todd and Joe dropped by at 9, and we went to Flex for birthday drinks.
2019 Sunday: I was up at 3:30, checked out at 3:50, and got to Boston's Logan airport at about 4:05, where I dropped off my car at Hertz, and had uneventful flights back to Raleigh through Dulles; it was so great to see Bob, who had a birthday cake and homemade card waiting for me.
2020 Tuesday: It was a great birthday in spite of COVID-19, with lots of birthday wishes via Facebook, Facebook Messenger, email, and texts; most participants returned their song connection exchange, and Bob thoughtfully and beautifully celebrated me by making my requested birthday dinner and cake, including a “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Cheesecake Cocktail” to use up some of the buttermilk leftover from making the cake.
2021 Wednesday: We arrived at Rex Hospital for my 6:00 a.m. appointment, I got called back at about 7:50, the left knee replacement surgery started at 9:05 as scheduled, all went well, and I spent the night there even though I had the option of going home.
2022 Thursday: It was my birthday and I retired; Jason Carabelli, Leigh Blaylock, Jaleh Reeves, Ruka Osaba, and Brian Fanney had the Content team meeting on in the background while we had a final bourbon outfitters™, before I left the office and later met Todd at "Flegends," after which we went to Circa 1888.
October 14
2014 Tuesday: 40 or so people, with representatives from my IBM, NC State, and Red Hat jobs joined me for my retirement celebration at The Borough, with Bob, Vivian, and Jeff being the highlight.
2015 Wednesday: Jeff Covington took mom to the attorney (Dave Silver) today to sign her updated Durable Power of Attorney, which allows me to make financial decisions (and sign documents) on her behalf without having to declare her incompetent first.
2016 Friday: We left for our vacation on Oak Island and arrived at Colby’s mother’s place at a little after noon.
2017 Saturday: Mom and I picked up salads at Firehouse Subs and ate them at bingo, where she just made a donation tonight.
2018 Sunday: I worked on some writing today—Oulipo stuff—writing some univocal lipogram haiku, which are haikus that use only one vowel in them.
2019 Monday: We were up at 4 a.m. and at Rex Hospital by 5:15 for Bob’s hip surgery, which started at about 8:00 and was done in a little over an hour-and-a-half, all going well; after seeing him settled in his room (6048) and meeting his hoot-of-an-NA, Sue, I worked the rest of the afternoon from home, returning back at a little after 6 p.m. to see him and say goodnight before joining Todd Clayton and Jeffrey Baker at Hibernian for $5 burger night, stopping by Flex with Todd for one drink (really!), and then by the Red Hat fitness center to get in my 30-minute walk.
2020 Wednesday: We pulled up beside The Hayes Barton Pharmacy and we put our masks on when the pharmacy employee arrived at our car to give us our COVID-19 testing kit, which included a collection device, a small instruction pamphlet, and a sticker with a QR code on it that took us to an app/website in which to provide our contact info and contained a video on how to administer the test to ourselves, after which we called the employee back, gave him our sample, and were told we should receive the results late Friday afternoon.
2021 Thursday: We checked out of Rex Hospital at 11:15 with a Pecan-crusted Maple Chicken lunch to go; we had Jamey Widener-Reynolds' "bitchin' ice pack waiting for us on the front porch; Clint Dean texted Bob to ask what variety of food we'd like him to cook a meal for us this weekend—we chose Italian!; a delivery from Edible Arrangements of cantaloupe, melon, strawberries, grapes, chocolate-covered strawberries, and chocolate-dipped pineapple was delivered from my co-workers Robyn, Bascha, and Laura; and right after dinner, a delivery person jumped over our porch railing to knock on the door with a half-dozen (hot) cookies (now) from Crumbl Cookies from Jaleh and her family.
2022 Friday: Vivian and Jeff, and Maryellen Smith and her friend Vaughn, came over for a spinach lasagna lunch with my birthday cake as dessert.