Lighter

In an effort to push myself away from the edge, I did some housekeeping this evening. That is, I went through my cell phone and erased old phone numbers. Some were pretty innocuous, reminders of events more than the people – Heith, the guy who fixed my fuel pump in North Carolina, or Carol, the lady who helped me clean a nasty apartment after I kicked out one of my tenants. Some numbers were old business contacts from my days with Design Management. Yes, how many years ago was that? A couple numbers I had acquired in Hawaii - previous landlords, real estate agents and the like. I even had numbers for two talk show hosts. Gone, all gone.

There were a few names with numbers I couldn’t recall. The other day I called Mary, asked if I could sleep on her couch if my job went beyond midnight since I had a 5 am assignment the following morning. Turns out I have no idea who I left that message with. The Mary I intended to call was listed under a single letter – L, an abbreviation for her roommate. Obviously, a bad filing system. Fortunately, I didn’t have to sleep on anyone’s couch. I erased the mystery Mary and then wiped out all the supervisors and team leaders with RGIS, the company I had been working for. Mary and Lori are still listed under L.

I erased old tenants and tenants’ mothers.

Some numbers belonged to people who I barely knew – the guy at the West Marine Store who thought I was cute and was at least twenty years younger, the broker in Honolulu who always seemed too busy, a high school classmate (we did dance up a storm six years ago, but that was it), etc… While none of the numbers belonged to any guys picked up in a bar, that’s the picture of the rest of the numbers I erased.

Yep, moving away from the edge. The phone isn’t any lighter for my effort, but I am. Now for my email…