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Thursday, December 17, 2009

What's on Your Desk?

I've had a desk in my room since I was a little girl, all of my remembered life. First I had a built-in desk. Then my mother found an old painted desk, which she stripped down to its mahogany wood and refinished. I took it to college with me. I still have that desk.

When my daughter was young, I bought an old walnut desk for her. She wanted it painted, but I wouldn't do that to the walnut. She left the desk behind when she moved, and I still have that one, too.

Then I found an antique desk finished in shabby chic, perfect for my laptop. It's what I currently use in my sunroom office, pictured at top right.

On my desk is a piece of polished jade from Big Sur. A vase of flowers from my yard (now it is narcissus). A coffee cup. A stack of poems and miscellaneous other papers that I am thinking about.

What do you have on your desk? Is your view as nice as mine? I look out over a park. I've found that I have to look out at something, not just a wall. I can't face a wall. If I can't have a window, I turn the desk so I face out into the room. So tell me: What's on your desk?


19 comments:

Shadow said...

you have the best view EVER!!!! i couldn't even begin to compare mine. it's nice, but yours??? i want one too, heee heee heeeee

Anonymous :) said...

You have a picture perfect space. My desk has one of my favorite lamps and a vase (not filled with fresh flowers). You've given me some ideas. Unfortunately, I can't go buy that view.

Karen said...

From the age of five, I've spent my life with desks - first my own student desks and then my teacher desks. At home, I had a built-in desk and now have my daughter's left over desk in the guest room, and we just gave my son his grandmother's old wooden desk. We have a huge cherry L-shaped office desk that we picked up second-hand in our den, but it's my husband's desk and I don't use it at all.

Unfortunately, the only desk I actually use now is at work - no longer in a school but in the district office - so it's institutional ugly and covered with stacks of folders and work. On top of it is a miniature yesteryear school room, complete with desks, bookcases, blackboard, and picture of George Washington on the wall. Beside that is a Dick and Jane book and pictures of my grandchildren. I have a Jan Engelbreit paperweight that says "Remember that when you help someone up the hill, you're closer to the top yourself" that was given to me by one of my colleagues whom I promoted. My room there has no windows, so I have the desk facing the door to allow me to see people walking by once in a while. Because of the location of my secretary's desk outside my office, we have the habit of yelling at one another rather than picking up the phone and dialing an extension. I call it our "hillbilly intercom".

At home, my lap is my desk most of the time, and that suits me just fine.

Alan Burnett said...

pens, papers, books ..... better still I will take up your meme over the holidays and let you have a picture of mine.

Brian Miller said...

not working in the corporate world any more, i guess my night stand has become my desk...books and notebooks, though i can never find a pen when i need it...smiles.

the walking man said...

Stuff, just stuff that sometimes moves but most times doesn't.

And yes I face a wall because it isn't important to me to have something other than my fingers to look at while I type.

Tall Kay said...

What a beautiful inspiring view you have. My desk is where I work and it's huge...covered with way too much to list here! Molly is going to LOVE that park :o)

Dianne said...

Funny you should ask, I just cleared mine for the holidays, HUGE stacks of papers that needed attention. Good thing too, it sits in the middle of my house between my living room, dining room and across from the fromt door.

Enchanted Oak said...

I pay for my view in the winter by shivering. There's no heat in my office. Nope, just me and my icy fingers, communicating, communicating... all my warm and sometimes cold thoughts

Maude Lynn said...

What a gorgeous view! I truly envy you that.

Anonymous said...

I use my laptop on the couch. I look out over my living room and on the mantle under the windows is the AA circle/triangle that my father carved for me out of limestone. When the leaves are on the trees, it looks like I'm in a tree house.

Syd said...

A day planner, a phone, a computer, dictionary, miscellaneous work papers, a 12 step prayer book--this is my work desk. At home, there are several computer "stations" set up but my favorite place is in the library in a leather chair next to one of the four fireplaces in the house.
At work, I look out over a large harbor through a huge series of windows. It is a spectacular view that I will miss when I leave. At home, the windows open to the woods and nearby wetland.

Monkey Man said...

At work it's a cube with no windows. At home it's in transition. Just moved. No desk. Just a big comfy red chair.

I'm with Shadow...your view is awesome.

Julie said...

Your office is beautiful!! I love the view and windows. I love the desk, too. It's way cooler than mine. But I am like you with the window thing. I have to be near a window, so I can watch the deer while I'm thinking. Lots of animals come around, and it just makes me feel good. I also have to have the window open, summer or winter.

As far as my desk, it's cluttered to the point of insanity...very high stacks of paper, pens, coffee cup, etc. I'd be embarrassed if anybody saw it other than my family. Oddly enough, I have an organized system that works for me. The one thing I always keep neat and away from the clutter is my daughter's picture.

I'm impressed with how good your space looks! The flowers are a nice touch, too.

Nikki (Sarah) said...

I do my best writing in the dark so my desk is in a corner against the wall. On it, I keep everything I need to write - very organized - If I had it near the window, I would daydream about being outside too much. Loved reading about your desk though.

Cindy said...

...what if you painted that desk for your daughter? Would she have it today? Would she cherish it too?

Woman in a Window said...

Your view is incredible. I'd never look to screen.

Mine is a tremendous mountain of balanced misc. Who would have thought? HA! Cat in the hat style, a fish in a dish on a cat on a mat on a box on a fox...and who would bother to dust?
xo
erin

steveroni said...

I could relate with almost everyone above this comment...except Sarah. How I envy her, not her "organized" desk, but the fact that she is so disciplined...to keep it organized.

In the forest when a tree drops, it just lays there until it is consumed by the ravages of time.
That's my desk, too.

Yours is perfect.

Hope said...

I don't have a desk at home anymore. Mine was piled high with papers.
At work I have an organized desk. I have a candle holder that says, "Be where you are, otherwise you will miss your life." And then I have the word HOPE in many shapes and forms from a book about hope from my sponsor to a rock that says hope on it to a notice on my bulletin board that says 'hope always'.