Messy Desk

The other day Bossy posted about a great Tina Fey photo she loves, of Fey's workspace. It's a masterpiece of messiness!

My mother, who may be reading this, would recognize my desk - it's just as messy as my bedroom was when I was a kid.

My computer lives in a funny little alcove in our house, just off the entry and across from the kitchen. There's a built-in tiny desk it's surface is all of 45 inches wide by 28 inches deep. [The Man I Love] always bangs his knee whenever he sits down at my computer.

Yet there's so much here! Because the only real telephone jack in our house is here, this is where the central station of our cordless phone lives. And the DSL modem. And the wireless network thingee for our three computers. So there are a lot of wires and cords and powerstrips and battery chargers hidden in this tiny space.

We got a little crazy a couple years ago and decided to paint our white walls different colors. So our kitchen is sage green and terra cotta. Our living room is burnished gold and red-violet.

My friend Lori told me about the Wilton Diptych before we went to London one summer. She said it had the most gorgeous color blue she'd ever seen. We went to the National Gallery and saw it. She was right about the color.

It just seemed right to paint my little alcove the same color. The Christmas after I hung the Wilton Diptych in my alcove, [The Man I Love] bought me an old movie poster. I have no idea what he was trying to say with this:

I think there's something out there about Madonnas and whores, but...whatever.

I have some other pictures on the wall I like, including a tiny oil painting of roses I found at a swap meet. Also a lucky horse-shoe from a botanica.

A lot of things end up on my desk - some are put there by other people, like the crumpled roll of stamps rescued from a 2 year old. Some end up there because it just seemed convenient at the end of the day to take off my bracelets or earrings and put them here. There's a flashlight and a candle, because we Topangans are always prepared for power outages. A Japanese flower candy in its little packet. The user's manual from my camera. A mermaid Christmas ornament. A couple pairs of reading glasses. Business cards for people I mean to add to my Contacts.

Oh, and excuse the glass of wine - it's that time of the evening - and the week! Sigh!

The back wall of my little alcove is built-in bookcases. That's where the printer lives, and also...well, some books. And some other stuff.

I put postcards I like on the bulletin board. There's also an artificial flower that was part of the gift-wrapping for something someone gave me, and a palmetto rose made by a couple of kids in Charleston, SC - they make them for tourists. Our local doctor's office helpfully provided a list of important phone numbers - the County Sheriff's office, Poison Control, CalTrans, the local animal rescue volunteers, and Rocco's Pizza.

Like any good doctor, she anticipated what would be the most pressing emergencies residents would have.

Guess which one we call most?