I have very random approach to the thing- just open it, somewhere, anywhere, and go. I never know what I’ll find, flipping back through them, and since some are several years old, much of the context has been lost and it’s all a bit mysterious.

For instance, I’m writing this (the first time…before the typing part, of course) in one notebook while flipping through another. The hyroglyphics inside seem to indicate it’s at least 3 years old:

• Phone numbers of unknown origin (Alma? in a 216 area code?)
• Two full drafts of stories, one which I thought I’d send away to publishers, but never did
• My grandmother Millie’s phone & room numbers for the hospital where she died
• Something in big red Sharpie: “Must be tlp file?”
• Several rounds of flight info: “fl 143 LGA 3:15 MSY 5:22″ No idea who was flying. When? Why?
• From a much younger Alison:
  

  MOM:
  Two large zuc
  bread
  food bro
  GARLIC
  1 1/4 lb beef (I’ll go with you.)

  She might’ve been young, but still old enough to know better than have me go to the grocery store for her. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten everything on her list- I hate zucchini, have no idea what a ‘food bro’ is, and might not get enough GARLIC to suit her.

• A full inventory of the shop, before Quickbooks, before Nancy, and before a great many inventorial acquisitions.
• Directions to God knows where: “1 or 9 train- @ 96th get 2 or 3, off @Fulton.” Sounds like fun! What’s on Fulton?
• The starts of about a dozen stories. Some promising, some not so much.
• One of many to-do lists that starts out with “(1) Call Millie at home”. This would have to be before the cancer, before the storm.

All this plus more doodles, scratches and complete unknowns than I could go into. It might all make a whole lot more sense if I kept just one notebook, using it up a page at a time, all in order, until it was complete.

But since when did I actually complete anything, anyway? lol…