You are my Ticket Album

In the back of Rolling Stone magazine is often an ad for a leather-bound Ticket Album, for preserving all your tickets to rock concerts, festivals, etc.

I long ago decided not to keep tickets - it was one particular move, possibly as far back as Boulder, when I realized if I kept compiling them and dragging them around, how big the stack would be. I chose to just remember the concerts instead.

But still, sometimes you wish you had a big paper archive to go through. I was reading an article just yesterday on Buckminster Fuller who about mid-way through his life began the Dymaxion Chronofile, in which he kept all his writing and notes but also his dry-cleaning bills. It was a paper record of his life, and in the end contained more than 200,000 items.

Today I was cleaning out my wallet and found a great collection of items. Because I have been travelling a bit the past two weekends, the receipts and things reminded me of other places. I thought again, wouldn't it be nice to have a big archive of these things to go through and have them spark recollections, but then I came on a better idea - throw the actual receipts away but list them here. This is in a way my Dymaxion Chronofile, but because it's digital it doesn't take up that much space, and because it's on Blogger.com, Google will look after it for me, even if I keep moving around.

So, here are the receipts from my wallet.

There was a red ticket that said "Admit One" - I think this was from the little movie theatre in Menasha when I went to see the really interesting Finnish film called The Man Without A Past.

A receipt from Villa Pizza for one slice and one medium sized drink. Couldn't not for the life of me remember where this would have been, but looked closer and saw Denver International Airport. My parents had dropped me off at the door this time, tired from the anniversary party the day before, and I had grabbed something to eat before getting on my plane to Milwaukee. Because this meal was caught in between doing other things, and because I wasn't with anyone, it hadn't registered in my memory at all.

A receipt from Piggly Wiggly in Platteville, Wisconsin. (For those not from this part of the country, Piggly Wiggly is probably the premiere grocery chain in this region. Despite the name and the funny sign, it's quite upscale and well-stocked.) This was when I was visiting all my cousins, after we went for pizza to their favorite pizza place in Platteville. Two cousins were getting wine to take back to the house, to sit on the back porch and drink (which turned out to be really fun). I at the same time went in and got a bottle of one of my favorite Aussie reds, to take back to my Aunt whose house I was staying at.

The weirdest thing - a coupon for money off on a pack of cigarettes, some weird unpopular brand. These coupons spit out automatically from cash registers after you pay, triggered based on the stuff you've bought. I find them annoying and baffling - "I want to buy this brand of shampoo." "--0h, then here is a coupon for some different kind of shampoo, that you don't want. No need to fall over with gratitude to us - you're welcome! Honestly! We're happy to do it!" I think this coupon was from a trip to Walgreen's drug store during my Denver trip. Cigarettes? Honestly. And what do you suppose triggered it? Some whitening toothpaste? Breath mints?

Last thing, actually in the bag itelf, was a receipt from Zacateca's Mexican Restaurant on Wisconsin Ave, and I couldn't remember at all when I would have been there, because I'd been wanting to and thought I would have paid attention. The bill was for $17, so I thought it was probably me on my own. I had to look at the calendar to remind me, and then I looked more closely at the receipt - it was n Neenah. I hadn't noticed the name of the restaurant, but had been there with a colleague for lunch one day. Now I remember.