listing

i am obsessed with making lists. to do lists, grocery lists, packing lists, books i have read, books i want to read, books my children want to read, movies i want to see, dvds i want to own, dvds my children want to own. i'll stop in the middle of almost anything in order to make a list.
i used to think this fetish was the result of some inherited trait from my mother, like my love of books and bouts of periodic insomnia are from my father (not for the first time i wonder if these two traits are inherited synergistically, that a love of books inherently brings to fruition periodic insomnia and without periodic insomnia one cannot appreciate the value of a good book), but i also wonder if it's the concreteness of the list itself. the ability to see at a glance, this is what i've accomplished, see what i have done this week? of course, there is the reverse of that as well, which becomes more and more obvious as the tasks that are accomplished get crossed off the ones that do not are held in bold relief among the slashes and zig zags of one's accomplishments, but whenever i get to that point the paper is usually full and then there's a need to write a new list on a fresh piece of paper with bold new goals along with the old.
i have never been without a list of things to do, nor have i been far from paper and pen. in this digital age am i the only one that does not have a palm pilot/iphone/blackberry attached to their bodies? i'm not sure i'd get the same sense of satisfaction from a push of a button. it'd be like driving a car, but having the car park for you, which by the way was an option when we purchased the prius - who the hell wants their car to park it for them? i can just imagine the accident reports: i'm sorry officer i don't know what happened. i pushed the auto-park button and the car just crashed. talk about limited liability - yeesh!