Day One:

note: i didn't edit these scans. to realistically keep this up, i have to be...realistic. also, i wont be able to scan on weekends. so this will be periodical, not daily. but i hope to have updates from other collectors as well!

Dear Creatively-Inclined Friends & Family,

Hello. I am writing to invite you to take part in a project I have been working on for the past five years. Since 2007 I have spent one month, from Nov 15th-Dec15th, documenting my life. In 2007, I collected small scraps throughout my day in an envelope (coffee receipts, gum wrappers, facebook messages printed out, a photograph of the view out my window) and then spent some time each evening labeling the contents of the envelope---why take that photo? Who was I with when I drank that coffee? At the end of the month a had a very scrappy wonderful box full of envelopes physically reflecting my mundane, everyday days (see attached images). Throughout the past 3 years I have repeated the process, documenting Nov 15-Dec 15th, each year tweaking my recording method to suit where I am in my life. For example, last year I was working a very "officey" job---one that both scratched my crazy-organized itch and felt very claustrophobic, thus I organized my project into filing folders labeled with post it notes and overbooked agenda sheets.

So, let me back up; why have I done this project for the last 4 (going on 5) years? In the fall of 2007, I found myself at a point where I felt as if I had forgotten how to make time for myself. I had forgotten how to be my own best friend, how to live inside the world I loved-- my journal, collecting, thinking world, the creative side of me. I had become dependant on so much outside of me for stimuli, entertainment, acceptance, and love. I wasn't even sure if I knew what was going on inside anymore. I had always had such a great ability to depend on myself growing up, I sometimes thought of my time alone with me as my favorite kind of hanging out, as strange as that sounds. Anyway, doing this project in 2007 forced me away from the buzz of college life, boys, working out, running around and it forced me to go within, to look at my life, to spend time with myself, and it allowed me to create something which I ended up thinking was pretty darn cool! As Novembers have come and gone, I have continued and begun to look forward to this project. It seems that Nov 15th always pops up right about the time I am beginning to come inward both physically, as the weather changes, and mentally, as the buzz of summer activity wears off. Each year in early November, I find myself thinking "Damn it, why aren't I being creative? What have I been doing for the last 6 months? Where is your heart self?" and then, there comes this project back into my life.

To move this email along I will spare you more of my inner dialogue and explain to you what is up for the November Project 2011. This is the first year that I am involving other artist's, crafter's, and recorder's creations in my yearly ritual. This year I have moved away form Ohio (again) and am living a very different life that I was last November----living in Brooklyn with a boy, working in Soho walking past celebrities and beautiful people every day, waking up at 5:30AM to go to yoga---and liking it? Anyway, as this project has approached, I have been thinking a lot about how much my life, my surrounding and my daily routine, have changed and I have begun to wonder about all of YOUR routines. I use to know where my friends were everyday every hour---high school was easy, you were in the classroom next door, college was a little bit more vague, but at least I knew we were all in the same city working on the same 18 credit hour semesters, but now what? Where are you? What do you do everyday? What do you eat? When do you wake up? What kind of money do you use? I am curious.

Tomorrow, I will be beginning my project and I invite you to join me. Join for a day, join for a week, come along for the whole month, it is totally up to you. Take some time over the next 30 days or so to be with yourself; I think you might find it enjoyable and maybe even a bit enlightening. Here is my vision; I am going to resurrect this blog. Every few days (I am only going to bite off as much as I can realistically chew here...so every few), I am going to scan my daily crop and post my "day" to my blog. I am hoping that as the month progresses y'all will join in and email me scanned or photographed versions of your "day"---whatever you collected and documented from your daily life (notes about waking up on the west coast, a menu from the cafe you ate lunch at, whatever it is). I promise to update the blog with your images daily and encourage you to check out what other people's days look like throughout the month. At the end of the month, I plan to take all of our scanned/photographed documents and create a Blurb Book (similar to Shutterfly for those of you not familiar) which will be a collaborative reflection of November 15- December 15, 2011 from all across the world. The book will be available for you to purchase directly from Blurb, or just to look through digitally for free!

This idea makes me very happy; I hope it peaks your interest as well! Let me know if you have any questions or if this was a really confusing long email. I will continue blogging as this project gets off it's feet, feel free to feel it out and jump in if you are interested in participating! Finally, if you know anyone who would be interested in participating in this project, please feel free to pass this email on to them or direct them to the blog.

Love each of you a very large amount,

Molly (mollyelizabethryan@gmail.com)

a book i made this week:

theresa and jimmy.

these a photos of my friends theresa and jimmy.

they are getting married next month.

it feels nice to give my creative energy today.

dying of admiration:

The NYT started a photo blog. I am swooning. Check it out at lens.blogs.nyt.com

Something I Have Realized [Part 1]

I measure growth in pain. When my thoughts rest on the last eight months, a voice inside asks “Molly, what have you done? What are you worth? Wasting away. Eight months of your able-bodied-life---stagnant, useless.” I beat myself up. I want to grow, stretch. For some reason, as I have grown into my adult self, I have adopted this assumption that I am growing only when I am aching. Pain and making it through the pain whether it emotional (loneliness, broken hearted) or academic (constantly revised theses and tough questions without real answers) or physical (competing in races and sweating in hot yoga) has become my measure of accomplishment, worth. Why has this happened? Why do I look at this last eight months and think “useless….” just because it has been relatively comfortable, in fact, almost “painless”?

I have learned two entire new fields of work and adjusted somewhat accurately. I have learned how to budget while saving for both long and short term. I have been to Alaska, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Buffalo, Monroe, WI, Columbus, IN, LA and San Diego, NYC, Milwaukee, and upstate NY, and I am on my way to both New Orleans and India and planning a trip to Moab, UT and potentially South Africa. I have applied for fellowships in NYC and abroad and attended 90% of my brother’s varsity soccer games. I have become remarkably closer with my 2 year old cousin and rekindled my high school crush. That crush and I have been actively involved in both of our families and I have sold crafts at a craft fair with my mama. I have applied for a credit card and made my first ‘alumni donation.’ I have gotten to work at 7:30AM most mornings and navigated what it means to work in the Executive branch of the government. I’ve sent out book queries and baked banana bread. I ran a half marathon and made friends with every Jimmy Vs regular. I’ve sold wire trees like a real artist and ate at Taco Trucks all over town with my brother. I don’t know; I don’t need to go on. The point of this is that the last eight months have been nothing of a waste, but my mind refuses to acknowledge that because they have lacked any obscene amount of anguish.

I want to practice appreciating myself. Allowing myself to be alive without hurting. To find meaning in my accomplishments. This is an unfinished thought, as I understand what this speaks to and how this applies more universally I will elaborate.

Questions to consider in the meantime:

What constitutes growth? Do we always have to be growing? Is growth always linear? Can I grown backwards or cyclically? Is that growth ‘good’? Am I living it right?

things i love today:

1. Apples.
2. The NPR iphone app. [You can stream any station in the nation. What?! I am swooning over the Minnesota Iron Range's Friday morning breakfast show.]
3. Sunshine on the bridge out my office window.
4. Learning about the food under my nose. [If you are in Columbus, Ohio and looking for an amazing Ohio-grown breakfast try Skillet in the German Village. Phenomenal.]
5. This poster of the Beers of the World [below]. Before viewing, please close your eyes and imagine the world's most conflict-dense regions. Open your eyes and super-impose your mental map over this one:I almost fell over laughing when Charlie and I saw this poster at the book loft and made the beer-conflict correlation.

my thankyou note to marquette:

Last spring I spent most of my empty moments thinking about what the last four years had been. This was both destructive and purifying. In the end, I wrote a very long thank you letter to Marquette. The kind of thank you that says "It hurt to hear that, but I think it was worth it." Today, I spent some time rereading what I spent four years fighting with. Here are a few pieces of my letter: