Grrrrr-umpy (and my desk)

So that's where I work. Except not today. After hurting my throat yelling at people (something like, "For the love of all that is good and right, get out of my way!!!"), I arrived at work, met with Boss re: the grant, then decided to take my bad attitude back home. I picked up a bagel with honey walnut cream cheese on the way, but am dealing with a rather miserable headache right now and don't really want to eat it.

Allow me to explain the clutter from top left to lower right. Above the shelves are binders that contain notes from graduate school. They are neatly labeled and, for the most part, organized in chronological order. I don't remember the last time I opened one of them.

On the shelves are magnets from Target (so pretty!) that hold up 2 of the flyers I'm using for patient recruitment. I have blurred out my contact information, though if you can analyze the photo and get my number anyway, feel free to give me a call. I'm not so good on the phone - especially in my evil impatience of late - but give it a shot if you like. The pretty flower notepad was a gift from M.

On the bulletin board at the far left are several items. Photos of the beach at Destin (Ah...the beach at Destin. How I miss it.), a pretty calendar of landscapes, and the first page of the recent articles I've published. Even as a co-author. Because it makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. Let's call that the ego trip portion of the photo. In all fairness, it's really quite small.

On the board behind the desk are several items: a brochure on an art exhibit I found fascinating, a card from Carrie, a photo of M, Dave and M's husband in Las Vegas, a photo of my graduate class from my first year in grad school, a postcard from Seattle (flowers at Pike's Place), a really lovely print, a photo of me with my roommates in undergrad and a postcard of an otter. I like otters.

Continuing to move down, there's a box of tissues (anti-viral!), my pretty iMac named Belle (she wears the headphones when I'm not using them), a desk organizer that I put together from Ikea (The drawers don't open so well. You have to lift the drawer while pushing on the base and wiggling as you pull at the drawer. Wiggle-lift-pull! I say to myself when I need something from there. Wiggle-lift-pull!). The violet sits on top of the wooden drawers. There's a tiny white ceramic sheep that holds one of my business cards to the left (I purchased in in Manchester when I was in England) and a tiny plastic note holder with a violet flower on the right (I bought it in Kyoto while in Japan). Then there are the most relevant text books. The rest are located within the shelves above my desk.

Down a bit more is a clutter of papers. It's not always like that - I have 2 (no, 3) filing cabinets that hold that stuff, but I find it helps me look busy if there's stuff all over. Either that or I'm kind of messy. Also note my amazing wireless mouse that I adore a great deal.

In the bottom right corner - on top of the filing cabinet that Friend and I built - is a frame full of family photos, and old and icky phone and my teddy bear holding the flower. So that's where I work.

Except for now - right now I'm on my loveseat processing data for my book chapter. And starting to think about the bagel waiting in the kitchen.