Thursday, September 9, 2010

desks

There's a desk gene in my family. My mom paid the bills on a mammoth metal office desk in our basement. While her main job description was wife/mother/homemaker, she was all business while sitting at that desk. Clack-clacking on an old manual typewriter (she typed letters to family and friends), Mom was the picture of efficiency.

When I was about twelve, Mom did some book work for Dad -
at her desk, of course.
She promptly used her earnings to buy me a desk. A lovely, solid maple Ethan Allen desk which now sits in our guest room. Desks were apparently an important commodity to Mom and she made sure I had one. From then on, I was hooked.
On desks.

One of the first desks we provided our boys was actually a wooden door
balanced on some milk crates.
They thought that desk was super cool.
A little oversized for their bedroom, it strained under the weight of coloring books, construction paper, crayons, pencils, scissors, matchbox cars.
What an amazing work space for two busy boys.

Later on the kids had an assortment of desks: garage sale finds, simple tables, or cheap assemble-yourself styles. I've lost count! But in our house now, we have four functioning desks and two non-functioning. That's nuts.
But we like desks!


This is my desk now. A desk and a table, actually. It's where I work, study, write and dream. Sometimes Often it gets messy. My desks have always been cluttered with notes, reminders, ideas and quotes. Yesterday I cleaned it up. It's no House Beautiful, but it works for me.

Here's what's left:
Planner. I don't really plan with it; just jot appointments and reminders.
Calculator.
Mug of my favorite pens and markers.
Metal holder thingie that holds correspondence I want to get to
and my favorite Bible verses.
A rock paperweight with a bird glued on; made by my daughter. Love it.
Paper clips, tape, stapler, LOTS of notepaper.
Shelf full of Bible, dictionary, journal, devotionals.
CD's. Which is dumb, because they're all on itunes on my computer.
Laptop. My connection to the world, and where I write. If I had to write in longhand I'd be a mess.
A new Visa card from LLBean. I'm not sure if it's a renewal of the old one, or a trick to get me to open a new account. They did that before.
A card a friend sent me in 1995 entitled "How to really love a child." It is awesome and I can't throw it away.

I suppose if I worked in an office all day, I wouldn't hold my desk in such high esteem. But how I love sitting at my desk.
Desks. What's your take on them?

3 comments:

Karen Dawkins said...

We have lots of desks too... the one I don't understand is in the kitchen. It's not really a desk -- though I had such visions when we first moved in.

Sadly, it's become the repository for too much. Batteries we can't remember if we used or didn't (really!), receipts (though they have a home elsewhere), coupons (often forgotten), and assorted junk that just seems to migrate there.

Desks... in my house.... a black hole! Sucking in everything within reach, never to be seen or used again!

-d said...

I'm a desk person, too, and was especially pleased when we inherited my grandmother's antique desk a few years ago, then my grandfather's. And we have others. There must be a connection....

Anne said...

It is so funny, the things I learn from these blogs about you and why I do some of the things I do. I love desks too! I have the one Dad made me out of cherry wood when I was in HS and we got a beautiful roll-top (my favorite kind) from a friend who was throwing it away! They both hold way too much clutter, but maybe that's their function!
Like Karen said, I have always wanted one in the kitchen, but there is not enough room...