School Daze, Part IV (and a note from Tom Brady)

3/11/10 Random office clutter, given away & trashed

My office at school is 9' x 11'. This is more than adequate -- I sometimes have a group of four students in there working with me -- but it's also small enough that any clutter is conspicuous. I took some time first thing this morning to clear off a particularly troublesome shelf that had become a repository for stuff I don't use. I tossed half of it in the trash and put the other half out on the Reading Room table, where it was quickly snatched up by my non-downsizing colleagues.

More interestingly, I returned home to discover that one of the Sports Illustrated magazines that I had sent of for potential autographs had returned. I've had four downsizing days (here, here, here, and here) that involved sending issues of Sports Illustrated off for signatures, and this was the first to ever return.

Joanna and I gathered together to open the envelope and discover if I had actually been successful at garnering the coveted John Hancock of a famous athlete.

Alas, no. Apparently Tom Brady is a rather busy man.

In his defense, I will say three things:

1) Brady probably has the most sought-after autograph in the NFL today, so I believe it when his "people" tell me they can't fill every request.

2) At least they were timely with returning the magazine to me. I just sent it to him in February. In contrast, I sent off magazines to Red Sox players back in September and still haven't heard a peep.

3) While I didn't get an autograph, they did return my magazine along with a letter and a Patriots Fan Pack, which included a team photo and a Tom Brady sticker. Pretty thoughtful.

Joanna's reaction, of course, was a little more in keeping with the spirit of the Downsizing Challenge.

"Let me get this straight," she said, eye rolling, "You send something away and you get MORE crap back?!?"

She had a point. I'm keeping the magazine with Brady on the cover, even without an autograph, but to make up for it, I pulled out another old S.I. that I'd been saving and tossed it in the recycling bin.

As for that Tom Brady sticker? She'll have to pry that out of my cold, dead hands.