Day Forty-Two

The only things written on this piece of paper: a 917 phone number followed by the name Alex.

Day Forty

I clearly intended to pitch a piece on the author of Sex, A Mystery, Fiona Quirina, to another outlet. I found a draft of the pitch on a tablet. The amateur sleuth character was a Harvard MBA who became a sex surrogate to pay the bills after she lost her job and the author, who wasn't using her real name, had both a Harvard and a sex-surrogate background.

Day Thirty-Nine

More names of people to see and places to write for: D.L., Michael, NYTimes, Ahmanson, Brounstein.

Day Thirty-Eight

I was once really obsessed with weekend outings, whereas now I'm content to stay home and watch TV on my days off. I was always compiling lists of places to go and people to do things with. On the page I'm throwing out today I wrote: Game Day Red Hook Shore Upstate Mohegan Sun Sag Harbor Atlantic City and the names of some companions (mostly male) I was interested in inviting along.

Day Thirty-Seven

More notes about Ed an Jack Myers...

Day Thirty-Six

Another piece of paper filled with lists of names/contacts/sources for my Metro column: Stacey Lynn Koerner Initiative (ad-buying firm), Ed Martin, Pew Internet & American Life Project, RIAA Cary Sherman.

Day Thirty-Five

A list of books to read (most of which I still haven't gotten to): Wicked: The Life and Time of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire Valley of the Dolls Adam Rapp titles

Day Thirty-Four

More stationery: Back in the day, before I started trying to go to London twice a year, I was always trying to come up with new things to do on weekends. Here's a list I compiled of "Places to Go": Shenandoah Valley, Va. Governors Island Finger Lakes Shore Pkwy -- bike riding Coney Island Staten Island Yanks NY Transit Museum + tours Mohonk Mountain House (Catskills) Socrates Sculpture Park Roosevelt Island, Trellis Restaurant

Day Thirty-Three

Ah, this note is from a pivotal time in my life a couple of years ago: Someone in Northern California that I sold something to on eBay said they never got it and made a stink. Ebay was little help because I didn't include a tracking number and the shipping address they sent me was incorrect. I have a note to contact them, and the phone number for Avalon on the Almeda, which I think was the wrong address, to see if they had it there. The good news is that my dissatisfaction led to me to open an Etsy store. I've been happily doing business with them ever since. Also on the slip of papers: Walgreens (I wanted to express my dissatisfaction with their points-reward system after they bought Duane Reade) and the name of a woman out west who used to assign me stories.

Day Thirty-Two

Just five words written on this piece of paper: "Unusual ways to see NY." Probably a Time Out pitch I was considering.

Day Thirty-One

I'm finding pages of my tablets filled with story ideas to pitch to Time Out. Back in the day I complained that stories could only be 800 words; now, I long to have those days back! On one piece of paper I wrote: Musical of Musicals, Dodger Stages (Feb. 2); Rebecca Gayheart, Steel Magnolias (March 15); Denzel Washington, Julius Caesar (March 8); Douglas Sills, Moonlight & Magnolias (March 3).

Day Thirty

Back to the Back Stage stationery...notes I scribbled from when I had my Metro column...a piece I did on cable providers and possible deregulation.

Day Twenty-Nine

I get all kinds of tablets (the paper kind, not the electronic kind) from nonprofit organizations that I either give money to, or that would like me to give money to them. Regardless of which category the organizations fall into, I make good use of their paper. This sheet for today is from Memorial Sloan-Kettering. It has a nice beach background with sand, water and seashells that I wrote a random list of to-dos on: Jim, haircut, car from NYC, recycle AC, storage facility, Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon, Alison Bechdel.

Day Twenty-Eight

More notes of names and story ideas for article. On this one sheet I wrote: Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis, Celia Weston (Far From Heaven) Todd Haynes. Then: James Rebhorn, Bob Gunton (busiest character actors); Hope Davis, Kathy Bates, Allison Anders; late bloomers: piano stuff, Polanski, novel (Turner), film (teacher); Latina Ent. — Freddy Rodriguez, Kirk Acevedo

Day Twenty-Seven

When I first moved into my apartment, I was a bit concerned that the front door didn't always close on its own when people came and went, and the other tenants weren't making sure it was locked. I scribbled a note a piece of white paper and I considered putting it by the door: "Please be sure this door is closed and locked after you enter and leave the building." Never did anything with it, though. I guess as I got accustomed to the building, I started to relax.

Day Twenty-Six

The papers from the tablet keep flying away. This one has just two notes: "pitch 2 or 3 shows to David C" and "657 credit." If the latter is my credit score, it's definitely improved in the succeeding years.

Day Twenty-Five

More sheets of paper from my Back Stage notepad that are going away. This one just has some names on it: Electronic Frontier Foundation, nonprofit group dedicated to protecting Internet expression; and James Gross, media and entertainment analyst, Barrington Research Associates. Probably sources I was considering for one of my Metro New York columns back in the day.

Day Twenty-Four

Another little slip of paper, this one already partly torn, with the word "covers we love" and "Morgan Spurlock Spring 2010" on it. Maybe from when I worked at the book magazine.

Day Twenty-Three

As much as I want to keep everything I acquire in London as a souvenir, I think I have to throw away at least some of my receipts, like this one from the Globe for a 4-pound program and a 2-pound pen for a friend.

Day Twenty-Two

More on the stationery: I started writing up an interview I did with a woman who worked as a sex surrogate to put herself through college and turned her experiences into a mystery novel.

Day Twenty-One

Continuing the theme from yesterday, I think I used my Back Stage notepad a lot when I was writing my Metro column because I'm finding scribblings on another page about Jack Myers Report, a media industry newsletter I used as a source.

Day Twenty

Here's more great stuff written on the pages of my old Back Stage stationery (it was printed on good, quality paper, by the way). It's a to-do list that includes: Help Me Howard, followed by the phone number musical synopsis OMMA stuff bio stuff

Day Nineteen

I still have the paper that Verizon sent me to accompany the $50 rebate card that I received when I last upgraded my cell phone — five years ago! This prompts two questions: When will I finally get a smartphone, and whatever happened to the "Can you hear me now?" guy?

Day Eighteen

A slip of paper detailing people I wanted to interview. This one lists Thomas Bradshaw, Michael Shannon, Adam Bock and David Joh(?)...I'm not sure I ever finished the thought on the last one.

Day Seventeen

I seem to like to write down dimensions of things. On an old piece of stationery from Back Stage with my name on it, I wrote: 21/21.5 inches 9 inches 2.5 inches I googled those dimensions and got a lot of listings for intercoolers!

Day Sixteen

A receipt from the Exxon on Main Street in Elmsford from 6/19/04...gas was $2.49 a gallon then. And more than 10 years later it's finally gone back to that price.

Day Fifteen

I still have IRA contribution forms from Putnam for 1998. My $300 in various funds had turned into anywhere from $372.29 to $431.45, and I was still living on White Plains Road then. Time to get rid of them.

Day Fourteen

Tossing out a Staples receipt for a Sony voice recorder that I bought earlier this year for $50.

Day Thirteen

Time to throw out this suitcase tag that has been on the floor by the radiator in my bedroom since last year, when I needed a new bag for a trip to London.

Day Twelve

I don't know why I keep so many receipts...Tax purposes? Memories of the fine meals I've eaten? I found one from 9/22/09 for fish tacos from Pinche Taqueria II on Lafayette Street. I think that was the night I went to see my friend Paul in The Cradle Will Rock at a theater on Lafayette and Bleecker. It's going in the garbage.

Day Eleven

A Post-it from Annie with her microwave's dimensions on it: 20.5" wide x 16.5" deep x 12" high. She didn't have room for it and offered it to me last year, but upon measuring I decided I didn't have room for it.

Day Ten

Another wrinkled receipt from the kitchen, this one from TJ Maxx from 5/22/11 for $24.99 for something called "Better Wear" on the receipt. Perhaps it's the Nine West jeans I'm wearing now.

Day Nine

A water-stained receipt from the grocery store at the end of my block from 9/16/2012, back when it was still a Pioneer. It's for two 64-ounce Snapples and a quart of milk.

Day Eight

I have been a notorious pamphleteer most of my life -- a habit I am really trying to break. So out go all the useless ones, including "Know the Bear Facts," one from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife that I picked up during one of the New Jersey State Fairs that I went to with Connie and Ed. It's about how humans can deal with New Jersey's considerable black bear population. It got wet and the pages are wrinkled and stuck together.

Day Seven

Another quarter of paper with words and numbers on it that mean nothing to me: 5/24/83 JC Tilton 1982 ___________ Haney + Co. Maison d'etre

Day Six

Tossing out a slip of a cab receipt from 5/21/06 for $4.90. The ride lasted from 3:360 to 3:43...was I in my dress and heels and going somewhere for a Drama Desk Awards event?

Day Five

A receipt from Green Apple Cleaners from 1/17/2012 for mending for a pair of pants: "please mend tare [sic] on seat of pants.. and patch hole by pocket," it says. It was $9 and if these are the flimsy tan pants from Nordstrom I was thinking of they were not not worth $9 to repair.

Day Four

A receipt so old and faded that the only words I can make out on it are the name of the store: My Sister's Favorite Things. I remember it was/is a store near the Asbury Park beach that I went to with Connie and Ed on a day trip before they got the house in Pennsylvania. I believe I bought some jewelry there...

Day Three

Throwing away an ad ripped from a Metro New York newspaper for a computer-repair place in midtown. I checked and the website (bluedata-ny.com) now belongs to an English-language school.

Day Two

Today is another easy one: a small piece of lined adhesive paper with issues of magazines listed on the front: Advocate 9/03, Interview May 2004, GQ January 2002, Biography Magazine (no date)...and on the back, the mailing address for purchasing back issues of New York magazine for $8: 444 Madison Ave, NY, NY 10022.

Day One

Every day I'm going to try to throw out one piece of paper in hopes that this simple task will help me clear some of the clutter from my messy apartment. I'm starting with an easy one today: tossing a $1 off coupon for a Sabra dip that expired on 1/15/2013. Nothing that could possibly be useful there.