Wordless Wednesday - 94

My First Saturday Six Meme - Workspace

I found this meme over at Patrick's Place, which seemed a fun thing to do, especially as I didn't manage my Friday evening post. I had a migraine this week, didn't make it to work on Wednesday or Thursday, and making any kind of sense was simply asking too much of my brain, frankly.

So in the spirit of branching out, a la the Blog Improvement Project, here goes Patrick's Workspace Meme:

1. What kind of workspace would you most prefer: a desk out in the open with your co-workers, a cubicle that’s part of a maze of cubicles, a small office just large enough to give you a little privacy when you need it, or a grandiose office with a big city view?

Well, the grandiose office with the big city view is obvious - to say the least. First of all, it incorporates the word grandiose, which is one of those words that is a lot more revealing of the inner me than many would suspect.

As one who is an Urban Gal through and through, I can think of nothing sweeter.

What is my actual workspace situation?

My day job desk is a very-well-designed cubicle affair with low dividers and lots of space, which gives me full view of the large window. It uses beige and buttery-yellow colors which is very soothing to look at all day. My bulletin board sections are a light brown fabric which holds a mixture of work-related notes and my own family-and-friends pictures.

My home desk is a dark wooden former bank exec desk which my mom and Gram bought for me. At the moment it's set up in the living room, since the room I'd intended as an office quickly turned into a storage room. This way I can hang out with my husband while I blog and write, watch TV out of the corner of my eye and generally feel like I'm in the center of the action. Because I am. I look toward a wall with a Japanese samurai hanging, a framed illustration of old fashioned shoes that my cousin gave me, a gilt-framed mirror and a faux street sign that reads 'Easy Street'.

2. Is your desk at work more organized or less organized than your workspace at home?

My day job desk is less cluttered than my home desk. But both have my signature piles of stuff. At work I have a foot-tall pile of files to be scanned. This never goes down, since I would be out of a job if there was nothing for me to scan. It just gets replaced by the next day's pile. Here at home the piles are made up of CD's which I listen to while I'm working. The current pile contains:

The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani
Classic Cash - Johnny Cash
Play - Moby
Synchronicity - The Police
Petrushka / Apollo (ballet scores) by Stravinsky - Georgian Festival Orchestra / St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street soundtrack - Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jayne Wisener and Ed Sanders
Greatest Hits - Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66
Zenyatta Mondatta - The Police
The Phantom of the Opera film soundtrack - Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Ciarán Hinds, Simon Callow and Miranda Richardson
Kill Bill Vol. 2 soundtrack - Shivaree, Ennio Morricone, Charlie Feathers, Lole Y Manuel, Luis Bacalov, Alan Reeves/Phil Steele/Philip Brigham, David Carradine & Uma Thurman, Johnny Cash, Malcolm McLaren, Chingon and Meiko Kaji
The Very Best of The Smiths - The Smiths
Fever - Kylie Minogue
Best of Bowie - David Bowie
The Very Best of The Doors - Jim Morrison and The Doors


















3. Which single office supply do you find that you use the most?

Staples. I have to pull apart documents to scan them, and afterwards staple them back together to put back in the file. I also handle mail as the main back-up, so I staple documents which later get passed back to me, the scanner, to pull apart. Good times.

4. You notice that a co-worker has taken one of your office supplies: a pair of scissors or a stapler, for example. You see that your name is on it when he opens his desk drawer. Shortly afterwards, he leaves for lunch. Do you retrieve your stuff or leave it there?

Luckily, in my office I would take it back, mention it to the person and we'd all laugh because we all lose our minds at various times. We tease each other mercilessly, but that's how it is here in Nova Scotia. The more fond people are of you, the more you get teased.

5. Take the quiz: What Office Supply Are You?


You Are a Post-it














You have a good memory. Your memory is so good, in fact, that it can be down right annoying at times.
You don't mean to nag, but you like to remind people what they're supposed to be doing.

You may be a bit of a pest, but you're awfully cute. So no one minds it all too much when you pop up.
You would make a good manger, salesperson or attorney. You can cram a lot of info into that head of yours.


6. Which of the following are you most likely to use the most at work: a cheap ballpoint, a felt-tip, a Sharpie marker, a dry erase marker, or a pencil?

A ballpoint pen. I often have to hand write a person's birth certificate information before I scan the photocopied document, because it will come through as a grey rectangle of gobbledygook.

Well, that was fun. I don't think I'll tag anyone, but feel free to play along if you so desire. Just make sure you link back to Patrick's Place.

Defining Myself as a Writer

I went to my monthly romance writers' meeting this afternoon, which I look forward to with the glee only a thinly-stretched fulltime day job employee who is the part-time caregiver of a 92-year-old grandmother can muster. The craft session today concerned defining oneself as a writer.

We talked about the state of the writing area as a reflection of how important writing is in your life, among many other things. When I got home I mentioned that to my mom, and we both laughed. Loudly. Not only because my writing area needs a massive overhaul, but because her art studio is in the same sort of shape.

Mom is my grandmother's primary caregiver. She's also a watercolor artist. She hasn't done a lot of new work in the last few years, basically since we all moved into this house together. Gram's care takes up a lot of Mom's time and energy. I'm the relief pitcher. My evening and weekend caregiving keeps Mom from going stark raving mad. It keeps Gram from having only one person to look at every day. And it eats significantly into my precious, precious writing time.

But I do put my caregiving on a Priority One basis, so writing gets second-tier status. I've been working at striking that ever-elusive balance so that caregiving and writing are on equal footing. I pass along all of these sort of tips to Mom so she can get back to her painting. Unfortunately I think her creative well is in a bone-dry condition.

In the meantime, let's look at my writing area to see what priority I've given to writing. I'm currently sitting at my desk which is temporarily situated in the living room. My office is filled with storage. What does that say?!?

My desk is missing three drawers, which are piled at the bottom of my closet. I haven't had a chance to sort through the drawers in two years. I have stuff occupying the space where the drawers should be, however. Mainly my family history stuff and critique session stuff.

There's a printer on the right side of my monitor. The monitor was passed along to me from one of my critique partners, and the printer was passed along to me by my almost-brother-in-law. The tower is a twice-passed-along refugee that processes too slowly to download the driver I need to connect the printer. Normally this would say I don't give writing too high a priority because I don't have the tools I need. However, finances do play a role in those decisions and I would say that my recent addition of an internet connection to my monthly expenses shows my very high commitment to writing.

There's a small pile of DVDs beside the tower. Not too topply. The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny is in front of the tower, to the left of my keyboard. I love that series and I love looking at the cover illustration of Amber.

The Moe's Tavern Simpson's alarm clock is in front of the printer, to the right of my keyboard. I need that so my guardian spirit can press the Duffman button from time to time when he/she visits.

There's a small (very small) pile of paperbacks and CDs on top of the tower. Piles of paperbacks can get very tall in our apartment. There's a page from the travel section of the newspaper showing discount fares to Toronto on the printer. A card sent in memorium to my dad from my best friend, from her donation to the palliative care unit, stands next to a roll of toilet paper that I was using as kleenex. Two boxes of floppy discs, earphones, a can of club soda, a can of Fruitopia and a Batman mousepad round out the residents of my writing environment.

As long as the monitor is the tallest object on the desk, I'm happy with that.