A Desk of One's Own

I have a new desk.

Well, not "new." I found it in someone's garbage about a year ago (yes, I am occasionally a dumpster diver; this was on the curb of a big house nearby. I'm always shocked what people throw away, especially with a Goodwill not too far away). It's a beautiful wooden desk with cubbies that has been thoroughly cleaned and been in our entryway and now bedroom. For awhile, Mama was storing her stuff in it, but it wasn't really working for her. Or for me, because even when it was hers, I would sit here during rest time and work on the computer. So, yesterday, I traded her my coveted downstairs letter sorter hanging on the wall for the desk. She gets downstairs storage and easy access and I get to have the space where I actually already work. It's a perfect solution.

I have always loved my desks. From the yellow one with three big drawers and a thin drawer at the top, to various dorm desks, a few cheap pressboard office supply store desks, even my huge, L-shaped, ultra-modern (and not very me) IKEA computer/dissertation desk that is currently in the basement, I love sitting at and organizing and working at my desks. My office desks have been pretty great too, from the one in the basement of the museum in Chicago (which was my first) to the one overlooking Central Park from a 19th-century mansion to the last one, again in a basement, complete with bookshelves, drawers, bulletin board, and cubby walls in my own huge office space (which served a double function as the museum's art studio and later housed my assistant at her own desk near mine). And now I have a desk again; I had put the IKEA one in the basement with the end of the dissertation project and the beginning of the baby project. Why did I need a place to write? But with the blogs, the job search, and the possible job, I'm so glad to have a desk again. I've put my knick-knacks on it, put some office supplies in the drawers, purchased a desk tray and am extremely happy with the result.

While I won't equal Judith Shakespeare's or even Virginia Woolf's writings at this desk, it is mine and already feels like home. I think I must have missed having a desk, the first time in some 35 years. I'm looking forward to spending my rest times here. It's kinda like coming home to the old me.