Thought Vomit Thursday - Clipboards

I love clipboards. I know, that’s a weird thing to love, but I do. They are good for so many things. Need something to write on? Here’s a clipboard! Need a place to hang multiple papers? Here’s a clipboard? Need to keep unruly children in line? Here’s a shotgun clipboard! See! So many uses!

I've always recognized the value of clipboards but my love truly blossomed when I got my first “real” job after college. I worked in a library. (Did you know some really WEIRD people work in libraries? Like the guy with the elbow patches and fedora. He was…something. No, I do not have elbow patches – I don’t even own a sports coat. That would be weird. Just because I worked in a library doesn’t mean I own a sports coat! I am a GIRL! Girls own blazers. Yes, I own a couple of blazers – no, they don’t have elbow patches! Stop judging me just because I worked in a library…ok, a science library…annex. Whatever! I said stop judging me!)

So my job was…boring. Yeah, that’s a good word for it. But being the goody goody (on the outside) that I am, I needed to “look” busy (because on the inside I’m just a slacker). So when I wasn’t sitting in my office emailing Smidge I would take my clipboard and roam around the library looking at random books and making “notes” on my clipboard. (Genius, I know!) It was highly effective. (Except for that one time when my boss asked me what project I was working on. I said something but I don’t know if it was coherent. Whatever. Would you please stop judging me!)

This “technique”, let’s call it clipboarding (I just thought of that! I wish I had thought of it back them! Maybe I can make it the new craze, kind of like planking! OOH! I see this getting BIG!) was really very helpful in getting me through the day. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I had legitimate uses for the clipboard, but chances were good that if I had a clipboard in my hand I was just trying to look busy so I didn’t bang my head on my desk in the back office.

I left that job after a year (and they eliminated my position after I left. That just shows you how “vital” I really was.) but my love of clipboards has remained! Is there a national Clipboard Day? There should be! Maybe I should write a letter.

Lily