My Desk

You can learn a lot about a person from her desk, and I'm not just talking about whether it's a neat desk or a messy desk. I'm talking about what is actually on the desk.

Here's what is on mine right at this moment:

• Two cell phones charging - Personal and business phones, but my personal cell is used more for business than the business one.  Go figure.
• Headset and microphone -To use with my Dragon Naturally Speaking software, which I can't use right now.
• Flier and information for Dragon Naturally Speaking software - I downloaded version 12, but it won't install. Ugh.  Don't you hate it when that happens?
• 21st Century Community Learning Centers RFPs - Both the elementary/middle school and ASSETs versions, for California, if course. The FAQs are printed out, too. Together, they make a pile of paper about two inches thick, all of which must be read before I can move forward with the training workshops and actually grant writing I'll be doing. Come to think of it, I think I do just about as much reading as writing in my work. That was never mentioned to me before I started this journey.
• An article a colleague printed for me called, "50 Grammatical Mistakes to Avoid." - I think I've already made about 6 in this post.  They are technically not necessarily mistakes, but bad writing habits to avoid. And I just indulged in three of them in that last sentence.
• A pile of bills and insurance documents - No explanation is needed. Those are just no fun all around.
• Paperwork for a couple of different evaluation projects - I keep telling myself that if I keep them on my desk I won't forget about them and I can work on them a little every day. Well, I don't forget about them, of course, but they end up just getting in the way when I'm trying to finish up other projects. Do I move them?  Of course not.
• My notebooks - I have a notebook that I use for all my notes on all projects. I started doing this years ago when my memory started become a little less reliable than it used to be. When I change to a new notebook, I carry around the old and the new for awhile so I can refer to notes in the old one until I don't need to anymore.  Then the old one is stored with the other old notebooks. Right now, I'm still working from two.
• A six inch high pile of scrap paper - Anything that is printed on only one side that I don't need anymore becomes scrap paper. 
• Two half full bottles of water - I almost wrote half empty, but you know what that would say about me, right?
• A pile of other business-related projects that are in-process - I won't tell you how many, but it's a lot.
• A desk fan - There are times when I am warm, usually when no one else is, and the little fan comes in very handy. It's a "woman of certain age" thing.
• Hand lotion - Because sometimes you just need it.
• Two staplers -I have no idea why I have two staplers, but I do.
• My 2012 Knitting Calendar - It's one of those perpetual calendars.  Each day has a new item to print, along with the pattern for it. Some of the patterns in it are really cute and I have already made a few.  As for some of the others, let me just say that just because something can be made, doesn't mean that it should be.

Beyond that, it's just pens, pencils, and miscellaneous other stationery supplies.

So, what does my desk say about me?