scrawlllllllllllll ............................

When I die (and I'm not planning my death, I am only just saying), I always wonder what will become of my many notebooks, scraps of paper, stuff on hard-drives, backups, and stuff that I never backed up at all, and thought I ripped up, burned and or folded and mutilated already!

I mean, seriously, if someone races into your domain before your body is cold, you know they are going straight to anything that even looks like a diary or a "clue to you"-ish! kind of thing.

Everyone will be all like, Finally!!!!! we can find out what made her tick!

Here, you take this stack. Everybody START READING!

Well, I'd like to direct the careful eye further.

I have "other notebooks." These do not include the journals and the like one might seek out at first investigative glance.

These "other notebooks" I have kept one on my desk in varying shapes and forms, FOREVER (including the time when I worked out of the house).

I have kept them always, and in all ways (gridded pads, recycled paper pads, notebooks, legal pads, etc.)

This is where I jot down shit that I can't forget that I'm working on, and or shit that I don't want to forget that has nothing to do with what I'm working on.

Some of the stuff actually comes off these pads onto "master lists" for various clients and work types over the year, since I am no longer "just a medical transcriptionist" and have worked in many, many, MANY other areas, some of which if I told you what I worked on, well, I'd have to kill you.

But I'm just saying ...

I do not throw these notebooks or writing pads away, because no matter what, if I'm looking for a lost piece of information that is not otherwise filed away regarding work or some such other, I can reach for the exact pad or notebook where I last jotted that information.

It's like photographic memory gone wild, but it works.

Seriously, I can go, "Oh, crap shit, just a sec, that's on the purple-recycled-paper-stapled-together pad that I used at ... and about upteen pages in on the right side in red felt tip is exactly what I need."

And IT WILL BE THERE! Mark.my.words!

I have the same memory for my journals and any other writing or course work that I've done over the years, but I assure you, all those items are scheduled to ignite when I die, SO DON'T EVEN GO LOOKING!

Above is a photo of one of the pages in one of these "other notebooks" that I've been keeping most of this summer. And it's a cool notebook too. The cover is this spongey purple stuff with holes in it like swiss cheese! I know, couldn't you just die and go to notebook heaven, already?!?!?!
And this is the final flipped page at the end of my work week where you will find such lovely items as:

-NEXT UP!!! ... written in red indelible so i don't forget to get something to someone three hours ago.-bisoprolol?-the speaker's name is alan-

-TOGAF-49.00 ... don't know if that was minute or dollars, i must say, but in another respect i also know exactly what it means!
and if you flip through this notebook of treasures, it also holds deep thoughts and "return to this" items such as:

-frogmore stew-moveable feast-OMG ... which is not oh, my god, if you must know ... dig deeper-historical review process-suitcase stuff-Jk stuff-looks like fridge poetry, but then again it isn't [huh?]

-eggs, oil, vanilla, sug ... flour ... will cling to the sauce pan, done

-2 rum, one gin, one brandy, 2 limes, a little grenadine

-[a whole slew of latin phrases ]

-nuts optional

-cutaneous metastases ... i know, yuck!

-brown beef, celery ... remove, drain ...

-crush or flush ??!?!?!??!

-you are out of ginger!

-house closing date and the words FINALLY!!!!

-lichen simplex chronicus ... yeah, i know, double yuck!

-get *all* the keys!

-coming, no need for lunch (yikes?!?!?!)

-tuesday-deadline

-do billing and invoicing

-groomer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-drag chicken plant ... okay, this last one i don't think i'll be coming back

for it, because even i'm not sure what it means! and i can't remember the last time i "dragged a chicken plant," can you?

but if i was not me,and i was the first one down the stairs to my office after i died, and wasn't even cold in the grave yet, i'd go for these notebooks instead of the piles of journals, writing, disks and otherwise.
i swear, all the secrets lie in these scattered wicked pages that are open on my actual desk top right next to my cup of coffee every day of every week for the last 20+ years ... i am not kidding you.

and if that doesn't talk you into it how about this (which I'm sure is two subjects at once, but still very, very interesting in many respects) and i give you:

-8 hours english to english, turnover time 7 days, beach cardigan, activx control, yogurt!

tell me i'm not a spy for the fbi, why don't ya!