p. 12,418 counting from the first morning one could remember counting from.
/ˈpædʒ.ɪ.neɪt/
verb · intransitive · etym: noemic-latinate · pagina (a page) + -ate
to count one's life in pages turned.
to paginate is to take the day as a leaf. one counts not hours, not anniversaries, but pages; some days are short ones, half-printed, with a wide white margin at the bottom. other days are crowded to the edges. a year, paginated honestly, is shorter than the calendar admits.
the practice has its risks. one who paginates faithfully tends to feel the thickness of the volume in their right hand, growing. some paginators stop counting and resume reading; some resume counting later, with a different system. compare brevicount, which counts steps to a similar end, and wreathing, which prefers the year to the day.
in a sentence: "i have been paginating since easter. there are fewer pages than i expected."
see also · brevicount wreathing marginate vellumly library