Apparently I Need an Adult’s Sketchbook

I have a sketchbook with a couple of Marvel Superheroes on the cover. Let me explain. It was something I bought out of necessity (I’ve ran out of pages on the other one I had with me) and it was the cheapest one available (it was either that or Barbie and friends). I’m not particular about my sketchbooks, no Moleskine snobbery from me — as long as there’s a good number of pages, it’s all good (surprising for someone with a perverted love for paper, eh?). In fact a couple of my sketchbooks are just a bunch of used pieces of paper fastened together. Okay, back to the Marvel Superheroes sketchbook. I was using it just now at a cafe when the kid sitting beside me noticed. She turned to me a couple of times just to make sure and then she asked her mum or aunt who was with her, “Why is it that some grownups never grow up?” :O

Saved by a Sketchbook

I have a lot of sketchbooks which I alternate between, depending on my mood or where I’m going to, but for a few months now, I’ve stuck to an A5-sized sketchbook with brown pages that resemble kraft paper. It is now my favourite sketchbook. I’d be very pissed if anything were to happen to it.

For no reason whatsoever, I decided to bring along a second sketchbook with me as I go out for breakfast today. I wolfed down my breakfast, did a few quick sketches and then decided to go home. I’d usually take my time to eat, draw, write and soak in the sights and sounds around me. But I needed to use the bathroom and since I really hate dirty toilets (I don’t know for sure if the toilet there was actually dirty, I just assumed it was), coupled with the fact that my home is only 2 minutes away, I decided to rush home.

Back home, I put my shopper bag on the dining room table, did my “business”, and then proceeded to play with one of the cats for awhile. When I came back to the dining area to get my bag, I found it dripping wet. With pee. Lots of pee.

To say that I’m annoyed at the situation would be the understatement of the century. I took out the contents of my bag and assessed the damage. My coin purse, a birthday present which I only started using recently, was soaked. My wallet and everything inside it was marinated with Eau de Chat. Among other things, 10,000 yen (money left from my Tokyo trip which I’ve totally forgotten about until now), business cards, pieces of paper containing ideas for my projects, a stack of receipts I needed as part of my business records, all tainted with the yellow tint of urine.

As I pulled out one wet item after another, I found my favourite sketchbook intact, dry as can be, wrapped between the pages of my second sketchbook, which took the brunt of the pee-age. Ha ha! Lucky me!

I spent the next hour cleaning, disinfecting and laying out things to dry. But let’s not focus on that. :|