This was my desk, in our old apartment in Waterloo. It may look like a kitchen table, but don’t be fooled.
Admittedly it was not the world’s greatest setup. Just off to the right there was our stove, and behind our stove was where the mouse lived. The two laziest cats in the universe were very little help on this front.
(As some of you know, that apartment was like wild kingdom. In addition to the mouse, we had several bats and a “colorful” neighbor, whose Thanksgiving brawl with a roommate resulted in a severed finger. No joke. You know you live in a classy apartment complex when you kick off the holiday season with cops roaming the front yard with flashlights at two a.m. looking for a body part.)
Also problematic: that awful chair. The seat was too high, so my knees bumped the table and my feet did not touch the ground. (If you are wondering whether this might have something to do with my being short, you are WRONG.) I solved this problem by using the Collected Works of William Shakespeare (pictured) as a foot rest. This might seem disrespectful, but I really was hoping for a little osmosis. That, and the book was the perfect size. For a year and a half, I sat at that desk in the wee hours each morning, clickety-clacking away.
I am an Olympic-caliber complainer, and I complained a lot about this desk. When we found out we were moving to Chicago, I started daydreaming about carrying it out to the curb. In our new place I would have room for something bigger–I could get a real desk instead of a kitchen table that only looks like a desk.
And then this happened, and I really can’t rule out the possibility that it has a little something to do with the desk. Don’t bother trying to reason with me.
Now I’ll never be able to get rid of this stupid thing!
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The table, which was produced somewhere in the Baltic states (Estonia, I think), cost us $10 at a Providence, RI thrift store. Only craftsmen from a former Soviet Republic could make a table that size that weighs 500 pounds. I think that it is literally made from the cast-off armor plating of those giant tanks they used to parade up and down the street on Lenin’s birthday. It is SO heavy.
But it makes the missus make novels, so it’s not going anywhere. Also, I really don’t think we could move it.
Kelly, hi from a fellow Penguin soon-to-be author (my debut novel, THE WATERS OF MARCH) will be out from Plume in 2011)! Anyway, I can’t wait to read your book (which sounds so wonderful!), and wanted to say hi. Oh, and the Shakespeare foot rest is too cute.
Now with a published book Mister can afford to buy you a Michigan manufactured office desk chair. Fully adjustable, up or down, back or forward, armrests adjustable and ergonomically correct. You won’t get tired as quick and can write more. The table sounds like a good peace of surface you can spread out on, you just need to get the write seating arrangement. Again congrats.
LUCKILY YOU CAN SPELL, PIECE TO YOU!