At Long Last — an Office!

One of the things I’ve been most looking forward to about our new house is the fact that we’ll have two extra bedrooms — and one of those rooms will be my office.

I’ve been writing off and on since I was eleven, so I’ve scribbled down and tapped out passages and paragraphs in my fair share of random places. First in the margins of my notebooks in school, on the bulky, Windows 95 PC in my parents’ basement, at the dining room table in our old house, or sometimes even on napkins pulled from the center of a restaurant table or my glove box. Most of the progress I’ve made over the last five years took place by staring at the laptop in the dining room or our old bedroom, so I know an office isn’t an absolutely necessity for success, but I’m hoping that having a designated workspace leads to even more opportunities and more publishing credits!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve sorted through the maze of boxes to make the space as usable as possible “for now.” It still contains an old dresser we’re eventually donating, my new (fancy) chair isn’t built yet, and it really needs a coat of paint, but I’m getting there!

My bookcases are assembled and stocked (though I’m almost positive there’s another box of books floating around somewhere . . .), the printer is hooked up, my desk lamp is filled with actual seashells from past vacations to the Outer Banks, and my grandparents’ photo looks on encouragingly from the corner of my desk. I even have a happy little storage box that my husband presented me with as an “office warming” gift when we moved in.

Getting back in the habit of writing has been a bit tough after taking nearly two whole months off to deal with the selling/buying/moving process. And I’m sure it’ll be fragmented for a while as J & I tackle more home improvement projects and perfect our daily routine.

But I feel really comfortable here. Last night when I finished “phase one” of the room setup, I sat in the busted old chair and looked around with a smile on my face for about fifteen minutes, thinking about the fact that I finally had a space to call my own — where I could concentrate, create, and hopefully keep racking up those writing achievements and milestones.