cell phone

Joel and I road tripped to Calgary and Canmore this past weekend. The photos below are a record of our antics as we approached Mel's house and needed directions. If you've ridden in my car in the past several months, I probably showed you my genius little plastic directions holder.
The actual case was a gift many years ago. I think it is supposed to be for holding your credit cards or something. I never had a good use for it because it wasn't really big enough to be a functional wallet, so instead it sat in a box of crap in my old room at my parents' house. Sandwiched between a toy boat and a pewter picture frame with an ivy design.

Anyways, when I was in my car one day looking for some directions I had written on the back of a receipt and then proceeded to step on all winter with my muddy shoes as I ground the directions firmly into my floor mats, I realized there had to be a better, more organized way to get from A to B. Then it came to me. I could re-use my old business cards by writing directions on to the back of each one and keeping them all together. WPK ordered me about 500 business cards and I think I gave out ONE legitimate card in the entire time I worked there. Oh wait, I can think of two.

So, after I decided to use the cards, I had this weird flashback to the plastic case and thought that I had to find it. So I drove over to my parents' house, walked up to my old room, lifted up a box and looked inside and VOILA. There it was, exactly where I thought it would be. And then I put a stack of business cards in it and they fit perfectly. SO satisfying. You have no idea.

I think I get such a kick out of this silly little organizational tool because it combines many things I like:

1) Reusing things destined for the garbage
2) Repurposing things that were never used and just sat in a pile
3) Organizing
4) Knowing where I am going and how I will get there

I use it all the time. And so as we pulled into Calgary I pulled it out and got us to Mel's house without any trouble. I called it my cell phone and pretended I was calling her for directions. Hence the photos. That's Joel texting in the last photo: