WAYRN challenge

Okay. I can do this. Really I can. Embarrassing as it may be, I can still play.

A few days ago (lost to me as I have been BACK AT WORK—eeeekkkk), good buddy walternatives asked folks the WAYRN (Where Are You Right Now?) Question. Lots of bloggers have participated; you should go check it out if you’re interested in How People Blog.

Here comes my disclaimer: I am usually very neat around my workspace. At some point late this summer, I became Not. Neat….Not. Neat. At. All. I had planned on spending the first week that R. went back to teaching this fall (that would be this week) cleaning up the space, banishing dust and debris and clutter, filing crap into its little file places, putting books back on shelves, etc., etc., etc.

But a funny thing happened on the way to The Big Tidy Up.

I decided at the last minute to accept an adjunct faculty position at R.’s college, teaching a “Writing Workshop” (read: Freshman Composition) course. I was a college professor for 15 years before “retiring” in December of 2003 from the other local college here in town. Long story involving politics at work and uterine wars at home. I spent three years writing and publishing poetry, going through IVF hell, and beginning our adoption process. A necessary hiatus on all counts.

But this fall seemed like a good time to get my proverbial foot back in the proverbial door. Because we are switching to a SN adoption, and switching agencies in the process, I need to earn a few bucks. And I really miss being in the classroom. Most of the time, at least. The Lightbulb Moment is a really cool thing. You know…when you can actually SEE the lightbulb go on inside a student’s head. When they suddenly get very, very excited about what you are saying, or what they are reading, or what is going on inside the classroom. When they really Get. It. I love that. It’s like a drug. I can’t ever have enough of it.

So…anyhoo…my home office is staying The Mess That It Is, at least for the time being. Who said something about the outside mess being a reflection of the inside-the-head mess? Yeah, well…um…okay, I can accept that. It’s been a rather wild ride around here lately…

Okay, so the pictures. Here are two different views of the main working / blogging area. (Click on shots for larger view.)

I have two desks in the office. Originally, one was supposed to be for the internets and the busywork of sending poetry out to contests and publishers (see above), and the other (see below) was supposed to be for contemplative poetry writing by hand or on my laptop (which is elsewhere at the moment) in front of the window.

I almost never use this window desk. I am always too busy with the internets, I guess!

Here is a shot of the far wall in my office. The little wooden rolltop desk was my childhood desk…and my father’s childhood desk before that.

Here is my favorite thing in my office, which you saw hanging above my main work area in the earlier picture:

It is a vintage pink-mirrored bathroom vanity shelf that I found at the Rosebowl Flea Market. It is the reason my office is pink (although I really like pink and brown together in any case). I keep some of my favorite knicknacks on it, including the seven round stones that my hubby gave me when we were first dating…to represent the Seven Directions important in Native American culture (R. is part Cherokee): North, South, East, West, Up, Down, and In. “In” is the most important, of course. In the collection of stones I have, it is the only one with a pattern…(sorry about the dust–good grief!)

The 19th-c. stereoscope photo above the stones is of The Engle Clock, or The Eighth Wonder of the World, which is an apolstolic clock that my great-great-grandfather, Stephen Engle, built in the 19th century. It is now housed at the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

Finally, because walternatives posted a shot of the bones near her blog station, I will include my bones as well:

It’s a javelina skull found here on the property. I had to bleach it to get all the skin and goo off, but I love it now.

The office is actually located in an out-building, about 100 yards from my main house. So…no TV watching for me while I blog. It’s also why I’m never found on the internets after about five o’clock…I go home at that point and don’t generally go back to the office until the next morning some time.
So, that’s the WAYRN. Stay tuned to hear about my first day back on the job, in which I experienced the EPISODE OF THE UNDERWIRE, and the call to jury duty (as in, Eleven Angry Men and One Woman)….