Not only is it my favorite TV show, the office is also one of my favorite rooms in our house. We are finally getting it all pulled together to be a proper work environment. The Red Bull vending machine arrives next week.
Here is my workspace.
I cleaned it up before I took this picture, discarding old papers, refrigerator magnets and a pirate sword first. Let’s pretend it always looks this tidy, shall we? OK, then. Let’s also pretend that I am five foot nine and weigh one hundred and eleven pounds. Alright? You’re the best!
The picture on my desk is a photo that my brother-in-law took for me when he lived in Ohio. It is a country road at sunset next to a whitewashed house with a white picket fence. And at the end of the road is a little Amish buggy. And the little Amish man inside the buggy is listening to Weird Al Yankovic on his iPod. At least that’s what I imagine.
The pile of papers in the lower left corner of the desk is the Valentine catalog layout sheets that I need to start writing. The clipboard next to them holds a notebook with my To Do list. One of the items on my To Do list is “Spend an hour or so writing stuff about yourself on your blog.”
The pictures above my desk are silhouettes of Max and Christian that I had done a few months before we moved by a friend of my brother’s. They are done in vinyl on painted canvas. They were incredibly priced, though I’m not sure if that was an introductory offer. You can find more information here.
Framing these silhouettes was an adventure. After a couple of embarrassing trips to custom framing shops—one of which included an employee who quoted a price of, “Five hundred twelve,” and me who blinked several times and said, “Like, DOLLARS?”—we found these perfectly suitable pre-made frames on sale at Michael’s Crafts.
Sitting next to my desk is Ryan’s space.
The photo on the left of his desk is of his dad. The large framed picture is a print of a colorful country landscape that we bought while we were in Utah. As we unpacked and hung all of our pictures and paintings, I got a little weirded out that so many of them were of landscapes that look incredibly similar to where we live now. Were we destined to be here or something?
Below that print is Ryan’s diploma that my mom had framed for his graduation. He isn’t very happy with where I hung it. He thinks it’s too prominent of a spot. He thinks it should be hung in a dark corner somewhere, behind a door in a room that nobody ever visits. When I asked him why, he explained that it’s embarrassing to hang your diploma. It makes him feel uncomfortable. I told him to explore his issues.
Not long after that conversation, we were having dinner with some friends, both of whom have PhDs. I thought I was going to make my point when I said to them, “Where do you two have your diplomas?” One said his was in a box shoved under the stairs and the other said hers was hung in a dark corner behind the door in a room that nobody ever visits.
Apparently I’m the odd one out on this one.
However, I am also the one with the hammer and picture-hanger-thingies. So the diploma is hung. I win.
The books on Ryan’s desk are books that he is re-reading in order to prepare another lecture for tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, the boy has never read a novel in his life (that’s right, he totally Cliff Noted his way through high school) but he re-reads books like Essentials of WJ III Cognitive Abilities Assessment. Again I say, explore your issues, honey.
One of the other treasures in this room is this framed picture Ryan’s sisters and brother gave to us at our going away party. It is a picture we took the last time our entire family was together and I love it with all of my heart.
It says, “Everyday moments make the best memories.” Which is not to be confused with, “Corn tortillas make the best enchiladas.” That frame was sold out.
So that’s a little tour of our office and one more item to cross off my To Do list. Next on the list? “Think of three more ways to avoid getting to work on the Valentine catalog.”
