this is my desk

I was thinking today, as I was writing at my desk, about the idea that you can tell a lot about a person based on how they keep their desk or work bench.

I guess you can tell a lot about a person based on how they handle almost anything.

Back to desks. Mine’s a little messy. My mom can attest, for much of my childhood my room was the messiest around. Sure, sometimes I tidy up my desk, organize and reorganize everything. And that always feels nice, like any tidying tends to. But it generally looks like this.

I have been sitting at this desk – and around a bunch of other places in the living room that hurt my back such as the couch, and the other couch – for several days in a row now, writing, writing, writing. It’s been a lot of fun because I love to write. My hips hurt, but I’ve been doing some yoga to make up for it. Luckily, it’s been rainy, so I haven’t felt badly about cooping myself up. I don’t think I left the house today.

This a picture Otto, now 5, drew for me while were on the bus a few weeks ago, a few weeks before he turned 5. It’s an orange cat. Underneath, it says “Manrd,” which is supposed to be “Maynard.” Pretty damn good. Maynard was, I believe, a cat his grandma used to have or maybe still has. This hangs on the wall above my desk by a piece of tape.  I told Otto, “One of our cats is orange, my cat Chawser is orange.” He pointed out, “He doesn’t have a green face, though.” True.

This is a cat calendar my mom gave me for Christmas. I love it. I turn the page over every week and find the cat or cats in a new cartoon doing hilarious things. Here is this week’s.

And this is a wacky corner of my desk that currently contains an early Easter card from Grandma, two pairs of sunglasses (one pair is Kevin’s), an empty bottle of expensive vanilla extract that I just had to keep because it cost FIFTY DOLLARS, a frame my friend Sara made for me which holds a picture of my late cat Floyd who died a year ago, and a cat figurine that my mom gave me for Christmas.

Conclusion: I AM A CAT LADY.

Yikes.