…right? At least, that’s how the quote should go, in my humble (and chaotic) opinion. I think I have figured out ONE of the reasons as to why I’m not getting much done. (For those of you who can’t stand, um, a wee bit of messiness, I suggest you avert your eyes, or make sure you’re sitting down) I present you with: my desk!
At least, this was my desk a couple of weeks ago. Apparent Dip got a kick out of the fact that a big bottle of ibuprofen and a couple of boxes of bandaids are front and center (he thought it was related to my amazing ability to injure myself while spinning and knitting–didn’t know that fiber arts were contact sports did you?). In this picture you see several ounces of fiber waiting to be spun, a sweater project waiting to be knit, and waaaaay too many knitting and book magazines. Oh, and somewhere in there is my computer and the work I have to do for my courses this semester. I have since taken the desk apart and replaced it with a smaller table. I do believe that Jane Austen would have written something like this had she known me:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a horizontal surface, reasonably clean, must be in want of a bunch of piles of crap.*
So, in an effort to mitigate my tendency to fill up blank space, I’ve reduced the space altogether–so far so good (we won’t mention the fact that I have simply moved things to the dining room table. Better to just ignore that part of it, is it not?).
Given the fact that I have accomplished very little in the way of work lately, I am taking the rest of the week to get something done. I have two papers to write, a bunch of secondary sources to skim read, and I have to finish 1/3 of Daniel Deronda. Luckily, Apparent Dip and I have a very low-key holiday planned: for the first time in several years, we aren’t traveling or hosting Thanksgiving, so we’re planning on making way too much food for the two of us, getting some work done while the campus is dead, and then hanging out by the fireplace and watching the hoped-for snow. To all of my readers celebrating Thanksgiving this week: happy Thanksgiving! For the rest of you: happy third week of November!
*My apologies to Jane’s memory and linguistic abilities!
Posted by Thermochronic on November 20, 2007 at 6:36 pm
dining room table …… AND COUCH! Don’t forget the alleged couch that lives somewhere underneath half of the school’s library and three sheeps worth of wool!
Posted by Sisyphus on November 20, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Heh heh. Quite the Victorianist, aren’t you —- can’t see a blank space without wanting to cover it up with _something_!
From here I can see your problem — there aren’t nearly enough sources of caffeine in that pic!
Good luck paper-izing.
Posted by Sarah on November 20, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Thermochronic: I don’t know, I think couch is fair game (as it is a soft, not a hard, horizontal surface)!
Sisyphus: The lack of coffee cups IS quite amazing. I think it’s due to my mold phobia–I’ve been known to grow several interesting varieties in my mugs in the past, which then means I can never use that mug again. It’s the only reason I pick up coffee cups regularly nowadays (well, that, and the fact that my husband goes through and does regular cleaning sweeps and finds the odd dish lying around). I’ve also been experimenting: not drinking as much coffee in the early part of the semester so that I can get well and truly hyper when I drink more and more as the semester wears on! So far, it’s working.
Posted by Sylvia on November 20, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Thank you for making my desk look like an oasis of order.
Posted by Sarah on November 20, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Sylvia: Glad to be of service! You can just imagine what the rest of the house looks like at this time in the semester
Posted by Dorothy W. on November 21, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I think my desk might be just as bad. But — I don’t work at it! It’s just a storage space. A picture of it would be pretty impressive, though … hope the work goes well!
Posted by Sarah on November 24, 2007 at 11:41 am
Dorothy: Thanks! And now that I have a laptop, I find it’s much easier to use my desk as a storage space. I’ve since moved on to cluttering other areas of the apartment…
Posted by compatriot on November 24, 2007 at 7:22 pm
It’s not mess. It’s horizontal filing.
Posted by Sarah on November 25, 2007 at 10:26 am
Compatriot: Exactly!
Posted by Danielle on November 26, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I hope you got lots done. If I had just a bit more space on my desk it might look like that. As long as you know where everything is….it’s just a different filing system, right.
Posted by Andi on November 26, 2007 at 2:48 pm
A belated Thanksgiving, and that desk looks ALL TOO FAMILIAR. The pic could’ve been taken at my house.
Posted by mother-in-law on November 26, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Maybe you caught the “pile instead of file” disease from your in-laws! Surely you remember what the desks around here look like!
Posted by Sarah on November 26, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Danielle: I’ve tried to convince my husband that chaos is actually more conducive to me finding what I need than being neat and tidy is. Once I file something away “for real” I’ve pretty much lost it forever.
Andi: Glad to know I’m not alone!
Mother-in-law: Apparent Dip and I figure that we’re genetically predisposed to clutter. I think that keeping my desk messy is a way of honoring our upbringings!