Sometimes I Am Totally Organized

no, i know, i'm not the most "together" person a lot of the time. or most of the time. but to be fair, i am a lot more put together on the professional front.

i have been known to manage sizeable projects and not miss a beat. not drop even a tiny little ball.

however.

one of my weaknesses is that, when i'm not careful, i sometimes maybe don't take the best notes.

or to be more precise, i don't make the best notes to myself.

for you? for others? of meetings? of classes? my notes are excellent.

post-its to myself to remind me of things? absolutely cryptic.

for some reason, i like to pretend that i will know exactly what i mean, weeks or months later, by using abbreviations that mean absolutely nothing. i seem to think, despite all evidence to the contrary, that i will remember all the details of The Meeting, even if critical details are omitted, such as what the meeting is for, who it is with, where it is being held, and on what day and time i'm expected to attend.

i just moved desks at work, so i have just gone through much filing, and have found many examples of my excellent "for my eyes only" note-taking.

EO MTG TUES, for example.

anyone wanna guess what EO is?

anyone?

because like, it's not the initials of anyone i know. it's not the initials of a project i'm aware of. i notice that neither the term, "marketing," nor the terms "website," "internet," or "intranet" -- three things i tend to have meetings about -- start with the letters E or O.

(somehow, i'm sure i managed to attend that meeting anyway, but you get the point.)

another favorite thing i do is write down phone numbers with absolutely no indication of whose number it might be. and then, because clearly they were important enough to write down, i save them.

which means that, at this time, i have no fewer than 7 post-its strewn about my files that have phone numbers on them and no names or companies attached. i mean, i probably transferred these numbers into some reliable electronic gizmo, but one can never be sure. so i best keep them.

(oh, and? the number of pieces of paper with unidentifiable numbers i have at home is just downright frightening.)

but i think the best thing i do, note-to-self wise, half-write, half-scribble something "funny" someone said so that i can remember it. except of course, out of context, it's not maybe so funny. especially when i write the quote down on something unrelated.

i found a "file" today in which the first page was a photocopy of a map of the Bay to Breakers race route, from the May 13 edition of the Chronicle, with this quote at the top (in barely legible handwriting):

not doing well & dead are 2 diff things

is that not the most helpful thing you've ever read?

i mean, i sure am glad i wrote THAT down. boy, i can rest well knowing i have that KNEE-SLAPPER to pull out at any time.

guest at dinner party: so, kristy, have you heard any good jokes lately?

me: well, gosh...[me, wracking my brain]...oh, hey! did you hear the one about how 'not doing well' and 'dead' are two different things?

guest at dinner party: why NO! that is SO funny! and TRUE. did you come up with that yourself?

me: no, not exactly...

so yes, again. i am SURE this was funny to me for some very good reason during some meeting or wherever it was i received the Bay to Breakers map route. but it's lost a little bit of its punch, don't you think?

and also, it's not so much critical to the file about our professional association memberships, is it?

hmm.