Six unlikely things that are currently on my desk.

[la_marquise]

1) A circular black and white gingham miniskirt (and matching net petticoat)
2) A toy raccoon.
3) A small embroidery frame
4) A ten-sided die, with the numbers in Chinese
5) A pair of small hand-weights.
6) A Saint Francis de Sales medallion.

No, I don't know how this happens. My desk does this. It also currently holds a dvd set of the 1966 BBC series of The Three Musketeers, a folder, lots of pens and pencils, my lectern, a couple of books I need to return to other people; a pair of scissors, a wooden ferret (carved out of sycamore, and beautiful), a mug of water, several notebooks and my kindle (as well as the keyboard and monitor). But these are more normal.
So, what's on your desk?

Comments

[jandersoncoats.livejournal.com]

In addition to the normal stuff (laptop, router, cable modem, phone, pen cup):

* 17mm socket with a gum wrapper stuffed inside
* Cherry candy cane
* Broken flash drive (the Boy dropped it in the toilet)
* Teapot in need of cleaning (half full of a very nice darjeeling)
* Two rulers (one metric, one imperial)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Teapots are very fine things.

[jandersoncoats.livejournal.com]

My father gave me this one as a high school graduation gift. It's survived two transcontinental moves and almost daily use.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

We have three, I think, but only the Japanese one gets much use, as it's so pretty. But they are lovely objects in themselves.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

I have three teapots, and the Japanese one (from Bee House) gets the most use in my house, too! It's the best design for me. It pours nicely and it holds enough water for 2 very large mugs of tea.

My largest tea pot is fine china, pours beautifully, is easy to clean, and is graceful and delicate. It holds three times as much as the Bee House pot and is really only useful when I have guests.

My disappointing tea pot is the traditional Brown Betty, I'm afraid. It's the right size for me, but every time I pour, the tea bernoullis under the spout and spills everywhere. I now understand why I've never seen a Brown Betty without a little plastic gizmo on the spout to prevent this.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

My mother has a green denby teapot that pour perfectly: I think it's ruined me for all other standard teapots, I have to say. But the Japanese ones are so neat and so lightweight.

[lagilman]

two cats, one in the kit-in box, the other sprawling. A small blue-green dragon named Nate. My to-do whiteboard (propped against the wall). A plant. A pump-bottle of hand lotion. My cell phone. A mug of tea (checks) gone cold. My keyboard and monitor. My router.

(to be fair, I have 2 desks, in an L-shape formation)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Handcream is a necessity.
I currently only have one cat (Moon), but she's washing my hair for me as I type, and purring in my ear.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

My desk is a war zone today.

The usual: water bottle, eyeglass case, piles of paper napkins (don't ask), a hair clamp, boxes of my business card, bottles of vitamins, telephone, cup full of pens, rubberbands, bulldog clips in assorted sizes, assorted other office-appropriate junk. Also, my computer (and monitor and keyboard/mouse). I hate having the computer on the floor.

The frequent, but not usually all at the same time, except this week is hell: 6 or 8 cover mechanicals, several recently transmitted mss, second-pass pages of another book, three sets of blues/jacket proofs, random invoices that need closer investigation before I approve them, random sample books that should be shipped somewhere not my office, a stack of filing, several CDs of art for books in process.

My desk is not that large. It's kind of a tardis of desks. Also, most of this stuff is in archaeological layers. I need to work through the blues to get to the jacket mechs, and the invoices are under those...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I did a mammoth sort-out of my desk about 3 weeks ago for precisely that sort of reason. I found stuff going back 3 years.... Oh, the shame.

[lagilman]

One of my tradition is, each time I complete a project of more than a week's duration, I Clean The Office. That includes getting the desks clean enough to wipe down.

This means I lack layers. Make your own jokes...

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

This, alas, has been a week where things are coming in faster than I can get them out. They end up on the desk because all the chairs and most of the floor space are covered already. You know what publishing offices look like.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I used to do that at work. It was helpful, but somehow that's one of the things that broke when I did, and hasn't come back properly.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

At work: two monitors (both working), a bag of apples, an orange, a two-tier in-and-out file, a metal standing horizontal file, a Condensed Oxford Dictionary, papers of dubious relevance to my work, materials for pending manual re-write, more papers, three ring binders (large, 2, small, 3) box-that-looks-like-a-book with hidden chocolate for staff emergencies, a three-tier metal file, a lot of fountain pens, a Hello Kitty tin with pennies in it, several mugs (all clean), a tiny umbrella made of card stock and a bent paperclip, more papers, a calendar the size of an old-school desk blotter, a wooden box once used to file case ID cards (4" x 6" size) back when we used those, a small container of salt, a box of tissues, a nearly empty tube of hand lotion, a new bottle of hand lotion, a stapler (not red), a thirty-five-year-old copy of The Voice That Is Great Within Us*...possibly some other things buried under more papers...

I may need to clean up, as my cubicle is beginning to look like something a hard-working archeologist might be able to get a grant for, if only it was at least a hundred years old and had been found during the clearing of an urban lot for new construction.


No cats, as they are Not Allowed in government offices, although one would love it, since there wouldn't be any other cats, and so would another, because he has never met a stranger.


*poetry anthology, edited by Hayden Carruth. Not a work-related item.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Now, that's what I call a well-personalised desk! I can see that all those are necessary in some way or another. (I have a shelf over my desk, otherwise I'd have very similar books on it, too.)

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

The shelf is full of manuals and such.

[mikaela-l.livejournal.com]

1. Books
2. Paper puncher
3. A toy voodoo doll
4.Cellphone charger
5. Scissors
6. Pens.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Those all make perfect sense!

[enggirl.livejournal.com]

It's a nightmare:
2 glasses (only one with water)
sunglasses
2 small cookbooks
pair of gloves
3 used kleenexes (that's what happens when I empty out coat pockets!)
empty mint tin
paperback book
a PILE of critiques (from Milford!)
more papers
4 notebooks
wallet
small punnet of dried fruit
phone
2 lip balms
assorted pens
curry take-away menu
and a pence coin

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Ah, I recognise this: Very Busy Desk. Mine was like that before I decided I must tidy or drown. I found stuff that I'd forgotten about for several years. And the die in Chinese.

[calendula-witch.livejournal.com]

I know that toy raccoon! :-)

My desk includes:
2 cell phones
1 lockbox key
10 unread books (this is one of my TBR piles)
a W-2 from the one day of extra-work I did
a coaster that Chaz gave me that says "I only have a kitchen because it came with the house"
a catalogue from Dutch Gardens

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

:-)
It is indeed that raccoon!
Oh, I love that coaster. I need one of those, too.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

A small ceramic dish, dark green, holding various silver earrings plus a silver key.
Two painted wooden horses from Sweden, one blue and one orange.
A stack of client contracts and monthly planners.
This morning's coffee mug (empty).

I dislike clutter. Very unfannish of me.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I don't like clutter either, but it builds up because I'm no longer super-organised.
I should do something to get my earrings out more, though -- they live in a drawer and as a result I tend to be in my piercing studs day in, day out. Which is a shame.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Two computers, many files, a phone, an intercom, a mug of hot water and a lot of different newspapers.My desk is deliberately kept uninteresting.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Ah, but you have a very interesting mind.

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

My hats. Yarn. An origami crane made by Girl!Twin. Books . . . lots of books. A postcard of a killer whale from Alaska. A carved stone box. A silver ring with elemental symbols. Stray green beads.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That sounds lovely. And very personal.

[teriegarrison.livejournal.com]

I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that I would incriminate myself. :-D

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

:-)

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

My home desk contains Panda, a catnip cushion and a sock of Roger's that she has decided belongs to her.

It also contains a tiara and a bottle of port in a leather case and a six inch layer of miscellaneous detritus rescued from builders.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That is so precisely you, somehow.
And what is it with girl cats and socks? Moon does that, too.

[chilperic.livejournal.com]

Since the British Library has not yet opened, I can be absolutely sure what is currently on my desk (seat 2154 in Humanities 1 reading room): a mat with the readers' rules, and nothing else. (I have no desk at home!)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That certainly makes for a tidy desk!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Apart from the usual desky things (laptop, printer, pen-pots, notebooks, stapler, paperwork in progress etc.) 1) A tube of aloe vera gel. 2) A bowl containing two prawn wontons and 2 sprong rolls (both gone cold) 3) 1 current Radio Times, 1 old one. 4) 3 old journals from 1994 (recently found in a reshuffle). 5) An empty bone-china mug (blue and white) 6) My kindle. 7) A CD of new photos of Vin Garbutt. 8) My lucky plastic pirate lady (bought for me by Jaine Fenn one Milford outing). 9) A copy of Treason's Shore by Sherwood Smith. 10) A catalogue of useless overpriced and tasteless *god-whattery otherwise known as a Betterwear catalogue.

* god-whattery is stuff you look at and murmur 'God, what's that?'

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Oh, the Betterware catalogues!I haven't see one of those in a while. Full of exactly god-whattery (with a side-order of 'who-on-earth-wants-one-of-those?').

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

There's someone in the area keeps shoving Betterwear books through my letterbox and normally they are cheesy and expensive, but benign. This one had a load of religious godwhattery in it (Holy family solar statue, anybody?) and maudlin memorials that are truly retch-worthy. Example: A cream ceramic base decorated with gold curlicues and a space for a picture of your dear departed loved one. On top is a snowglobe sphere eclosing a scroll which reads 'Your presence we miss, Your memory we treasure, Loving you always, Forgetting you never.' Or how about a graveside LED light with Jesus and Virgin Mary sticker-inserts? And all this amongst the humane cat detrerrant, the wheely-bin decorative stickers, the plastic welly-boot tray and the coal paint to make your imitation coal look just like new. Yes, really! Betterwear has truly lost the plot.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Headdesk.