Mounds of Memories

In late 2006 I helped myself to an oak shelf that sat in the Executive Office's meeting room virtually unused. No, I didn't steal it. I just moved transferred the shelf to my own office, because by then an obscene amount of paperwork was starting to accumulate on my desk and table. Rather than buy a new shelf I simply swapped a smaller cherry wood one for a larger oak version. Weeks went by but somebody noticed, and after coming and chewing me out (albeit in a friendly way) a replacement was ordered. So my attempts to save the Tribe money went for naught.
Since then the shelf has become overloaded. I save everything piece of paper, every report, memorandum, etc. possible. Some people think it excessive, and I cringe when watching that cable television show "Hoarders" because if there is ever an office or workplace version somebody might turn me in. But you never know, I always say. Electronic records can be manipulated and conversations, I learned by sitting through some of the Pearsall hearings, can be mysteriously forgotten no matter how important. Hard copies, with my own notes, are the way to go, my proof of history.
I've started making a dent in paper mounds by learning how to scan, double-sided, much of these reports and packets and converting them to PDF's. Thus I now have photocopies of my notes and can scrap the originals. It has been somewhat liberating.
Some people know this but I've requested all of our reports be emailed to me in PDF's, including SMGI paperwork. I download these to my netbook or laptop and scroll through them during meetings. Foxit Reader, a PDF reader that is downloadable for free, allows me to type notes onto the reports and memos. At first I would get a lot of looks during meetings, some guy sitting on a laptop during a meeting, but people are catching on. I take some solace in the environmental part, today's work session packet was 90 pages long. The longest one in recent memory was nearly 150 pages. With nine Council members you can guess how much paper we go through. I am tempted to compute how much the paper costs weigh over two to three years versus a netbook with a 2-3 year lifespan.
Sorting through many of these older packets as I scan them has been akin to strolling down memory lane. I've always considered myself having a good memory. But in looking over many of these packets it is obvious that much has happened that I've almost forgotten. My notes or the agendas trigger floods of memories, some of which must be embedded deep in the back of my mind. It is almost overwhelming.
The agendas will often just list a meeting we had, at what time. Depending on the topic I either draw a blank or relive a session that got very heated. I came across many on enrollment, and I can recall that a crowd of people showed up. I can remember when somebody got upset and stomped out. Some things I can remember I wanted to remember, but obviously did not.
Years ago National Geographic featured on article on memory. There is a woman in California, who now prefers to be unnamed. She possesses an extremely rare condition called hyperthymestic syndrome. She remembers every waking second of her life, of what she has read, of what she watched on television. People thought her a freak or phony, and would harass her to prove her condition wasn't real.
She said in the article it was more of a curse. Not sure if I agree. This job has tested my memory like no other. I would love to remember everything. As I close in on the end of my second term, and who knows maybe even final depending on voters, there has been, as all the notes and packets remind me, quite a story to tell.