At our previous (and first) Salon meeting, we talked about a “personal motto” that can be summed up in three words. All of the others have by now put forth theirs: “Not The Holdup” (Anna), “Mulling It Over” (Etta), “I Meant Well” (Brad), “Are You Kidding?” (Kim) and “Trying My Best” (Sarah).
I have finally settled on one that really resonates with me: “Documents His Life,” as here are all the things I document:
- My days. I’ve been blogging for 7 years, and haven’t missed a single day in the last five years: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002.
- All the movies I see, including the date of the movie and a link to a synopsis of the movie, along with my thoughts about it.
- All the theater I see, including plays and opera. Currently I have two lists going about this, and do feel the need to consolidate them some day. One is in my blog, in the form of “Theater Memories,” just like the Movie Memories, and the other is on my home page, in a section called, “The Arts.”
- All of the lectures and concerts I see, which shares space in “The Arts” section of my home page.
- All the places to which I travel, pretty much all anyway, since 1975 (need to catch up the recent two years, but they’re all captured in my blog, too). This includes the date, the place, where I stayed, what airline I took to get there if I flew, and then comments about each trip, which in the more recent years contains a link to my blog entry for that day, where every detail of the trip can be ascertained.
- All the cities in which I’ve ever lived, and there are 16 in the list, as my dad was in the military and we moved a lot, especially during my childhood. This documentation includes the place, the time period living there, and what school I was in when we were there.
- Eleven years of schedules of “The Nematomes” bookclub, which I co-founded in 1991. This includes the monthly date of the meeting, the book name, if a reader’s guide was available for the book (this, in the later years only), the leader for the discussion, whose home the meeting was in, and who was responsible for refreshments for the particular meeting. All Years, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991.
- All of the books we read in my Mostly Social Book Club, which includes the approximate date, the name of the book, the author, and who in the bookclub chose that book and therefore would be responsible for leading the discussion.
- The books we read in a Gay & Lesbian Book Club I was in in the 2002-2003 timeframe.
- All of the line dances I know.
- All of the classes I took in grad school, which includes the course name, the course code, the professor, the semester I took it, whether it counted as an application class or a theory class, and my grade. At the bottom is my final cumulative grade point average, hours taken, and graduation date. 🙂
- My social and business commitments and appointments.
- My last wishes, which includes information about:
- my will
- my prepaid cremation plan
- my general power of attorney, as well as my healthcare power of attorney
- my identity inventory, which consists of my social security number, driver’s license number, passport number, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, loans numbers, investment account numbers, retirement account numbers, e-mail accounts, utility accounts, and frequent flyer accounts
- a description of what I would like my memorial service to consist of, including organ donation request, no viewing, being cremated, cheap coffin, what to do with my ashes, a limited body viewing, no clergy, no flowers, the music I would like played, and an after-party
- and my obituary.
I’m sure I’ve missed one or two things. I need to document a list of all the things I’m documenting. I guess this is a good start. 