Discoveries

It's a slow day at work. I could feel the oppression of nothing to do creeping in on me. My boss is out sick, deals are a little slow these days, and really I'm just too darn efficient at my job. So, I did what I always do when I'm going stir-crazy: I started throwing things away. I started with a pile of papers I created when I got back from my 2 month "vacation". They were papers to be filed but not with any urgency. I feel like my aversion to paperwork is a mix of my father and my mother. If I was 100% Mom, I would have filed the papers away the moment I sorted or received them. If I was 100% Dad, the bottom of the pile would date back to 2003, when I first started at this firm, and be 3 feet high. But alas, I am a perfect mix of aversion and address; I've only been ignoring it for two weeks and today was the day to get rid of it. I always think these projects are going to take me more time than they do, which is why I think I put it off, but it never does. I had the filing whittled down in about 5 minutes and, because I'm so organized at work, had it all in its proper place about 5 minutes after that. I only killed 10 minutes on filing and now my desk is clean. Now what?

I looked around at what else I could clean or throw away and my eyes wandered to the dreaded drawer, my one personal drawer amongst the other tens of drawers I keep for the people I work for. This drawer is pretty representative of one of my life's paradoxes: I'm really good at keeping other people organized. I'm also really good at keeping common space in my house clean; I love a spotless house (this is 100% Mom). However, my bedroom...[sigh] No matter how hard I try, I can't keep it clean for more than a few days. Somehow things get out of place and I can't manage to get them back to where they belong with any kind of speed. It turns into an all-day affair, usually on a Saturday when I'd really rather be riding my bike or something. I try to tell myself it's because I have a house full of things crammed in my not-so-tiny room, but really I think it's because I have too much paperwork I don't address, too many things that don't have a place, and too many clothes that I don't really care about enough to hang them up at the end of the day. Oh, and too much surface area to put those things without it terribly inconveniencing my daily routine. So, back to the drawer (I bet you forgot we were talking about my work drawer).

This drawer is the work version of my bedroom. I try to keep it clean, but it just keeps collecting things. (You like the passive voice there? That's me not taking responsibility for the bottomless pit.) I decided today to find out what exactly was in there. I was shocked and appalled at what I found. Ladies and gentlemen, a catalog of the work drawer:

1. Towing receipts from Percy's mishaps earlier this year: Why these aren't at home are a mystery to me. Oh, wait! No, no mystery. I don't have a fax machine at home, therefore they are here because after I faxed them to my insurance company I "filed" them away in my drawer(thus avoiding filing away paperwork at home...).

2. A technical writing book and course materials from an online course at BYU I started earlier this year. I never got past the first lesson: "Why Technical Writing is Fun." I totally forgot I was even signed up for this class until I saw the book. My experiment was successful: I have zero desire to enter into a career of technical writing.

3. La Sombra Del Viento, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Apparently to work on my Spanish at work.

4. A box set of C.S. Lewis' collected works.
Again, why these aren't at home is somewhat of a mystery to me. I must have bought them on a lunch break and not taken them home, perhaps anticipating a day like today when I would have nothing to do and would like nothing more than to read a little Lewis. This is a plausible explanation. It does not, however, explain numbers 5 through 8.


5. C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces.



See #4. Did I buy this book before or after the box set?

6. Hunger, by Sherman Apt Russell.

I was in the middle of reading this book when I got sick (though I don't think the two are related). It's a really interesting read. I need to finish it. Bought after the Lewis box set, I'm sure of it.

7. Church History in the Fullness of Times Institute manual.

I must have brought this from home, but who knows when. I've actually been looking for it and had recently convinced myself that I had never really owned it and just had it confused with some other institute manual.


8. The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss.
Recently bought, though I probably should have just checked it out of the library. Give me a Border's gift card and I'm dangerous. This was the only book I actually knew or remembered was in this drawer. Had I remembered I had Lewis, I may not have purchased. It's a different kind of style and I like it, but the subject matter...I'm not sold yet. The gamble of book recommendations.

9. A redweld full of drafts of my own book. I really should look those over and get back to work on it.

10. A letter I wrote but never sent to my mom. It wasn't very articulate, which is maybe why I didn't send it. I have a tendency to do things like that.

11. A letter I wrote to another individual but never sent. This one was actually very articulate and rather insightful. I must not have sent it because I was feeling self-conscious. Who writes letters anymore? I do, but most people don't, so when someone gets a letter, especially one with evidence of much thought, it can sometimes be taken as meaning something more than it really does. So I didn't send it. Funny thing is, even thought I wrote it in March, I still want to send it. But I probably won't.

12. Stationery and envelopes. For all those letters I'm going to write but never send.

13. A dusty nickel.

14. Two tampons. Must restock.

I'm not quite sure what this list says about my work life or, rather, my life in general... But the drawer is now organized (all books will remain until read) and my purse actually fits in it without requiring me to get creative.