Last week, after years of limping along with a shaky-legged, hand-me-down desk, I broke down. I walked into a local vintage furniture store one minute, and a half-hour later, walked out with the receipt for a modest-but-classic, student desk. The next day, it was delivered by a couple of linebackers in a moving truck and placed, in my office, in the spot where it stands right now. It is made of wood with circa 1950 hardware, it has a glass top and two writing surfaces that slide out on either side.

I then proceeded to set up shop. I hauled out my modern, natural light, dimmer lamp; untangled the old, cordless phone; and stood up a collection of pens and pencils in an a makeshift tropicana can.

While I can set up the latpop on the desk, I purposely kept all computer equipment 180 degrees away from this space on a circular table just a spin in my desk chair away (where I have my Centos Linux distribution running on an old, hand-me-down, 500 mhz tower with a sweet, 19″, hand-me-down, hulk of a monitor where I am writing this post now).

In celebration of this new space, I signed up for a drawing course online. I gathered together all the drawing tools that I’ve collected over the years, and to round it out, I went to the art supply store and picked up an inexpensive tabletop easel. Two weeks into the course, I’m excited about what I’m learning and about how comfortable I feel in this new space.