Back in Business

So I'm currently sitting at my brand spanking new (and oh so artfully assembled) desk, eating pineapple out of the can with a side of tortilla chips, a glass of wine at my side, taking a break from commenting on my first round of student papers. And you know what? It feels kind of good. Sure I'm behind and have tons to do, but...I know how to do this. And I know what needs to be done.

I am so incredibly pleased to have a desk again finally - and a desk that makes me happy no less. I haven't had a chance to organize it or anything, but it's still nice. Ideally it'd have more drawers, but since I've got a mostly empty bookshelf right next to it, I should be able to improvise something. While I might have been able to find something cheaper, it would have meant waiting still longer to get one, and as a person who does 75% of her work at home, I couldn't wait. Plus even though this one isn't exactly my Platonic ideal of a desk, it's attractive and new and feels good to me. Danny Sexton once justified spending some huge amount on bed linens (which makes him sound hilariously unlike the guy he in fact is) by telling me that since you spend 1/3 of your day in bed, it's somewhere you should really love being. Though I still haven't bought those $400 sheets, I have always remembered that, and it definitely guided me in my decision to splurge a little and get something new. (The fact that at 26 a low-end IKEA desk is still a splurge is a lament for another post.)

But yeah. I still have some unpacking/organizing to do in the study, but having a workspace at home that I like being in is really nice. I've even got a sweet nickle-plated Pixar lamp (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60146764) to make me look extra-legit. So in six weeks or so when 90% of my time is split between seminar rooms and this study, I'll at least be comfortable, well-lit and trendy.

So...maybe I'd like this to be 1/15th of the male population's Bible

Oh Don Draper. Even though you're violently antitype as well as antihero,  I still kind of want to go on a bad date with you.

Though I mean, any fool could do it, right?

Also, as stated on Facebook, steps one and two - and hell, maybe also three and four - apply equally well to performing in grad seminars.

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In other news - not to jinx things, but I'm feeling shockingly stable and decisive about both my personal and professional life. Which is remarkable considering it's been years since both were at such stages of upheaval. True, this is largely because I had no professional like until I came to UW and therefore have never before articulated a connection between them in this fashion, but still. Let me bask in my moment. Lord knows all I'll have to bask in for the next 9 months is Brad's loving displeasure about my inevitable failings as an employee and the warmth of knowing that I put myself a year behind to join a field I'm slightly better at but understand vaguely if at all.

...this post just became the definition of taking what you can get. But even so - I got unmistakeably angry up in someone's grill this week. In BeccaLand, that's a gold star no matter how you cut it.

Plus, Adam comes tomorrow. So even if I could hardly call it the best week ever, it's had a lot going for it.



...and despite some guilt about not working much for school yesterday or today, I find I feel something very close to happiness. For reasons I created myself. Plus the realization I have some sweet friends.

It's a wonderful life, girl. You might even end up a Capra film with the last scene intact.*

 

*Incalculable Becca points if you know the reference and are not also Jamie Anderson.