The Lair
This past weekend Erin and I moved around the office at home.
When Erin moved into the house, the intent of that room was to house her brother. As a result, my things, as they slowly got transferred into the house, were… displaced into various areas. The bookshelves went, two of them, into the front room and one into the bedroom and then, even more slowly, the books started making their slow way over the new apartment and onto shelves with the intent that, over time, I would arrange and organize them the way I want. Whether anyone ever notices, there are subtle changes that take place on a relatively frequent basis. The post-wedding process has been to organize things so they work for us.
In the last few days Erin repurposed the shelf for school-related books to actually hold most of our (current) school related books. Weird.
Anyway, when her brother moved into an apartment and we got married and started living together, as married people do, we arranged my desk and the desk we bought for her in the office so that they were side by side. The bed purchased for her brother was along the back wall and we also put in a shortie bookcase next to the washer and dryer. When you looked into the room, it looked like a cluttered bedroom. We kept it clean, but still… it gave off the aura of a cluttered bedroom.
So, last Saturday, Erin and I wake up and move the room around.
We move her desk to the wall where the bed was. We moved the bed next to the door, left the bookshelves alone, moved the DVD’s to the same wall my desk is on and then pulled Erin’s rolling drawers out from under her desk and put the trusty-rusty laser printer on that, and then put the new inkjet color photo printer, scanner, copier on a rolling file drawer that my knitting is in. What this has done is make the room look like an office rather than a cluttered room. As a result, I have started retreating into the office. I don’t really know why. Sure, I can get at my desk and the surface better; but, that doesn’t seem like enough of a reason for me to start retreating into that room when things happen.
The principle example, for me, was Sunday night. The girl that lives upstairs is taking an introductory philosophy class. Apparently, her professor is crap, but then, not everyone can teach that subject material well. Anyway, she calls or texts Erin to let her know she is coming down to review a paper and I wisely retreat into the office, mostly closing the door so I can have privacy while things are discussed out in the living room.
Erin found this interesting.
The logic, inside of me, is simple. The bedroom does not have my computer. Which is important. AND guests who need to use the bathroom have to go through the bedroom, which negates that as a solitary, lonely place. Plus, the kitchen is nice, but the aura of that room has never been conducive to writing and on Sunday’s the only REAL writing I allow myself is journal writing (even though I did one other thing this Sunday to get it out of my head).
The point to all of this is that I have found some kind of work-equilibrium or cohesiveness with the office. It is nice. I feel like it is a place that has been oriented to work in. I like it. It is my new lair.
Barring anything untoward happening, I am actually REALLY enjoying the office as a place to work. When I got up this morning, rather than going into the front room and turning on the TV and then working through the pile of things that still need doing, I found myself in the office, at my desk, using my computer and rotating between writing on Alicia Grey (10500 words, by the by) and working on the dreaded science class homework. We have another test this weekend. For Erin, this is compounded with taking a physical science test to clep out of that class and graduate on time. AND a paper for her William James class, the topics, much like Kierkegaard, seem very interesting AND a Book of Mormon test for a teacher we have decided is a NAZI and other things… well, the point is she is busy on top of which, I have a lot of things that need doing from catching up in professional communications, configuring my computer as a standalone server, and rewriting some short fiction for another professor while also working through the same study material for the science test so that I do better this time than I did on the last test. I passed, it was not great.
My lair has proven to be beneficial for me to allow me to focus on the right things: homework, Alicia Grey, and… you know… stuff. Like I said. Very nice.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West
Real Heroes Fly