Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

I’d like to say that I keep my jewelery meticulously organized and safe in a box designed for that express purpose. I’d also like a billion dollars.

A couple of years ago (perhaps more than a couple) I picked up these cute little mugs at Pennsic. They are adorable but not the most useful in day-to-day drinking endeavors. (I have a third mug approximately this size that lives on my belt when I am off being a medieval Norse chick. When people insist on having you try something and you’re not sure about it but wish to be polite, having a tiny little mug comes in handy!) So, now that this paragraph has been taken over by parenthetical commentary, I say we cut it loose and move on…

These mugs live on my desk to contain my rings. I tend to fidget with rings while I’m working so my rings used to end up everywhere on my desk rather than back on my fingers. Now they live in the little mugs. It sounds silly, but this practice has cut down significantly on the cases of, “Where did I leave that ring?” since the state of my desk is not always conducive to finding little things quickly.

photography, pottery, rings, things on my desk

Strictly speaking, I’m not sure this little pillbox is actually mine. It’s been around for ages and probably originally belonged to my mother. However, it’s been in my possession for years so it now lives on my desk when it’s not providing travel storage for pills. It’s small, cute and unique. It fits in a pocket, a camera bag, a computer bag, a laptop sleeve, etc. I love it – it’s the perfect size! Of course, I have run it through the washer at least once. Yes, there were vitamins in it at the time. Yes, it was gross.

Like many of the things I’ve appropriated from my parents, this little pillbox holds a special place in my heart. It not only makes me think of home but also reminds me of the gnome dolls my mother used to make. She did a whole line of gnomes inspired by the drawings by Rien Poortvliet. She’d make the gnome dolls by the dozens – female gnomes with generously endowed bosoms, male gnomes with their beards – assembly line style. They’d start as naked, pale fabric, then get hair, hand-painted faces, clothes and the ever important gnome hats. We didn’t realize it at the time, I suspect, but it really is a unique experience to grow up in a house regularly invaded by armies of naked gnomes and brownies.

gnomes, pillbox, things on my desk, yellow, Rien Poortvliet

I adore pens in general and I absolutely love fountain pens. I might have a bit of a pen problem, to be completely honest. Fountain pens in particular have a certain heft coupled with the glide of the nib… It’s a totally different experience to write with a fountain pen.

Of course, there is a certain logic I could apply to my pen collection.

The Pen is Mightier than the Sword.

And there are many, many, many swords in our house. Clearly I need pens to counteract them.

Makes perfect sense. Right?

Of course the swords have nothing at all to do with why I have a pen obsession…

fountain pens, things on my desk

Ganesh is here to help. As the Remover of Obstacles and Patron of Letters, he has been a great companion through interminable conference calls, horrible e-mail threads and other quagmires. He’s a popular deity (Hindu) and generally nice to have around. When someone puts up yet another roadblock to making progress on a project or decision, Ganesh and I exchange looks (his always sage and stoic, mine usually rather exasperated), then I usually sigh and move on.

Perhaps we get along because he has a sweet tooth. (Offering to Ganesh often consist of sweets and treats. Shucks.)

This particular statue is barely over an inch tall and lives just below my monitor with some other key figures in the pantheon of my desk who we’ll get to later…

Remarkably, given the current/frequent/natural state of my desk, there is no depiction of Loki (or other deities of chaos) anywhere on my desk. And yes, my desk needs to be cleaned again.

ganesh, things on my desk photography

Matches are very handy things when you need them and you never quite know when you’ll need them. Sure, in this modern world we have less frequent need of a match or two, but that just means when we need them, we really need them! I keep them around mostly for candles and to take to the miscellaneous camping event but you never know when the striker on your flamethrower is going to fail and you’ll need to light it manually to keep the zombies at bay. We do live very close to a large cemetery after all.

matches, matchsticks, photography, things on my desk

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

My desk is often rather… um… cluttered. Yeah, cluttered. It always has been. My dear mother tried for years to get me to clean it and keep it organized, but the entropy always won. I’m better at keeping it clean now, though I still organize in piles. (…similar piles to those that gave a certain CEO fits when she, a perpetual neatness freak, went by my cube… those piles I magically pulled any document she needed out of instantly much to her surprise and chagrin as well…) Despite needing to keep 1/3 to 1/2 of my desk clear for a certain gray cat, I just have lots of miscellaneous stuff on my desk for various reasons. Some of it is rather boring (like the ream of paper elevating my computer screen) and some of it is rather fun (like the little toys).

So, I’m starting a little photo project: “Things on my desk.”

I suspect I’ll soon be wanting a macro lens quite badly.

Today, we’ll start easy with the “key” to my car which for some reason lives on my desk rather than with the rest of my keys.

cars, clubman, keys, mini, photography, things on my desk