Tuesday, January 01, 2008

starting it off right

above


May we rise above the things that hold us down, keep us from being who we need to be. May the next year hold plenty of gladness and laughter. May my legs be strong and my hands be busy. May I derail this sappy beginning right quick in favor of something less greeting card-ish and affectingly sentimental!

I woke up today to hear my husband making flapjacks. And husband-made breakfast at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday is a thing worth feeling good about, even if we had to call it New Year to get it. We ate and he left to pick up our new desk. We have longstanding intentions of corralling our disorganization with the right tools and routines, but life (being life) has made it tough (or tougher than usual) and instead of getting our act together, we've found ourselves splayed further away from where we need to be.

First things first, we need a desk. A place for paper and bills and a working surface free from dinner smears. I've had a certain desk in my mind, a large, metal mid-century industrial sort, the kind of desk one might find in a secondhand store (my apologies if that similar phrase has you inadvertently humming Prince), but then again, one might not. And I have not. My thrifting luck of late has revolved around pretty plates and old sheets, not so much anything of the big and useful variety. The husband was growing so impatient with my insistence on wanting just the right, certain desk that he declared the other day that he was going to, simply, rig a work surface up out of an old door, a filing cabinet, and, uh. . . a stack of boxes or something. The point being clear: we need to get this step of our new organizational plan underway and working for us.

And, just to be clear, our organizing endeavors rest more in our recent move into a new home and the culminating sigh which followed so many moves in such a short time, affording us, for the first time in I can't even say how long, the space to stop and think about stuff. I didn't protest the old-door-as-desk idea, because a dedicated surface is a dedicated surface, but I groaned to myself because once we do it, it falls off the radar and we start thinking about other things and did I really want to always have a lopsided and tippy old door with no drawers as my serious home office space? Well, no.

Enter Freecycle to the rescue! It wasn't just an eleventh hour fortuitous surprise, but a Three Hundred and Sixty-Fourth Day perfect find. The exact desk I wanted: beige, metal, early 60's-ish, big, with several drawers, a side return, and in stinkin good condition. Free! Three minutes away! It's sitting on my back patio now and in a bit we'll clear a path from the back door to the basement stairs and get it all set up!

May it be just the impetus we need for establishing those paperwork and business household routines again. May I have even more fantastic luck in the your-trash-my-treasure department. May this next year be better than the last.

2 comments:

Angelina said...

Amen! Ha ha. Yes, I wish the same things for this year.

I was hankering for a 60's metal desk not that long ago too. I actually have a 40's big desk that weighs about five hundred pounds which our computer is on. It used to be my desk but is now everyone's desk. I have this little issue where I feel that I should have a desk of my own. And it needs to be a real desk. Not a door or a pressboard affair with a melamine finish. It has to be a DESK.

I also get pretty excited about office supply places and typewriters and pens.

Anyway- I'm so excited for you that you got the desk you really wanted! It's a great beginning to a new year.

Lisa said...

It's is always great to get such a coveted thing free!

Eat More Kale!