Yes, I am.

A prude. Or so it seems.

Because I ordered (sight unseen, pretty much) a small organizer/calendar thingy that just looked cool when I saw a pic of it on flickr.

How cool is this?

I even got to choose my own color cover, and there were lots of choices. I’m not sure if I chose “Humbolt Green” or “Green Anarchy.” I just know it’s dark green and I love it. (I wonder how popular “Santorum” is.) (And I think it’s part of its charm that they evidently even have cute little misspelled words here and there.)

Front:

Back:

Okay, to begin with it’s revolutionary, I get that. I mean, as in subversive revolutionary. As in, it has a “Radical Contact List” in it, and info on dealing with government repression. In fact, here is what it says on the first page:

“In creating this organizer, we seek to respond to increasing repression from government and the corporate industrial machine with ever more powerful creativity and love.”

Okay, I’m there. Any time I can be creative and loving and fight the corporate industrial machine, I am definitely there, in all my middle-aged suburban glory.

NOTE: It occurs to me that this would be a very cool organizer thingy for The Admiral and Mr. Harris to whip out at business meetings, but I digress.

More to the point, it is very cool. All hand drawn, line drawings decorating every single page. And dates you are unlikely to find anywhere else. I mean, did you know that on December 24, 1955, Aldous Huxley took his first acid trip?

Or that on July 4, 1835 the children of Paterson, NJ went on strike for a six day work week, and an 11-hour workday?

And of course in addition to historic boycotts, strikes, assassinations, etc., it includes the dates like Independence Day, Bastille Day — but wait, I’ll come back to that.

It also has a Menstrual Calendar, instructions how to “Check your nuts” “and your breasts” and tips on having successful meetings and conversion tables and a 5.5″ ruler on the edge of a page so you can measure things, and — it’s just very cool.

You see, this time last year I was ordering my new, much-much smaller Franklin Planner, and wondering if it was going to work out for me. Little did I realize that I would have turned my organizational system upside down and would be going even smaller.

And this cute little slingshot seems to be everything I want. Small, fun enough to make me want to use it, and the way my life is these days, I can usually fit any appts. into a small space. I keep my notes in my moleskine, use my 3×5s for the hPDA, so I think this may work.

I have my new Franklin refills sitting here, and I’m seriously considering returning them. (I haven’t opened the packages.)

So, what’s my point?

Well, the line drawings are sometimes a tad graphic. They range from simple almost childlike line drawings, to complex art. They range from kites and 50s-era spacemen and floral borders to a few nudes, one of which is a robust lady with delicate flowers covering her “delicate flower” with proper gentility.

But, did I mention Bastille Day?

Bastille Day made me blush when I first saw it. Made me close the book and go, um, I don’t think so. Not that I cared about the act itself — but I just didn’t want to see a line drawing of any sex act every time I flipped by that page, and so I thought about giving the Slingshot away to somebody less ::blushy:: than I am.

But the more I looked at my slingshot, the more I wanted it. 160 pages of fun facts to entertain my family and friends! And I thought, aw heck, why not have fun with it? Why not put a sticker of some sort over the odd little guy’s erection (and maybe another on the powder puff he’s using to, I suppose, powder the other guy’s bum (for all I know these are some sort of mythological creatures of which I’m woefully ignorant, or maybe just someone’s imagination).

Stickers, hmm. Oh. WAIT!

I ordered some stickers a few weeks ago. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I ordered the flylady stickers.

Shut up.

They looked fun, okay?

And I now have two flylady clingies, oh joy. Yes, I’m blushing about that, too, are you satisfied? (Um, anybody want them?)

So I’m looking and thinking, “Family Fun Time!” Now that’s a clever sticker to cover well, the picture I’m covering! Or the sticker that says, “PARTY!”

But then. I couldn’t resist.

“Tsk-tsk!”

I now have a tiny Flylady her-own-self hiding the sex act on Bastille Day.

Sex is fine. I don’t care who you are or what you do with consenting adults, yadda yadda.

Just please don’t do it on my planner page.

You see, I am a prude.