Saturday, October 09, 2010

Prorities

Crap, why is when I know I should do something, I get sidetracked by the state of my desk?

I'm horrible at keeping this thing organized lately.

Cleaning it now.. lets see how long this takes...

Done - took all of about ten minutes and I suddenly feel a little bit calmer. I love my work space. I always have. I find something soothing and comforting about my desk, when its clean of course.

This is where I work when at home, where I do all my writing. This is where I have done all my writing from the time I was in University. When my sister first moved out, my parents decided to purchase a futon for her now empty bedroom and a desk for me to work at. The one I was using was beyond help - falling apart and wobbly. My parents found this desk and after looking at it once in the store, I feel in love with it. It's heavy wood, sturdy and classic. There was something about it that screamed 'CREATE' to me and I couldn't wait for it to arrive.

This desk has traveled with me just about everywhere. When I moved out for the first time to live with my sister, due to space, I had to leave it at home and use one of her old desks for my own. It never felt right. There was something about it that just didn't fit. The creativity didn't happen and I stopped writing for the short time I lived with her. When I moved into my own first apartment, I originally came without the desk, as my parents didn't think it would mesh in the apartment or that I would need it. After about one week of living without it, I pleaded with my dad to bring me my desk.

It wasn't an easy task for him. This desk weighs a ton and it wasn't easy for him to move from Lockport to Winnipeg. It changed things for me, and I was more creative than I had been in a long time. I decided then that this desk would never be left behind, no matter how difficult it was to move around. Something about it was a part of me. It's hard to explain, I suppose. Or maybe its not. Creativity is sometimes brought on by the environment you are in and whats around you. This desk surrounds me in the written words I love.

In the alcove, right about my computer monitor is books, many books. These are the words I love, I read over and over again or have touched me in some meaningful way. I don't think you can see by the picture, but here is what's always at a bit above eye level for me:

  • Third Edition of The heath Anthology of American Literature
  • The Complete Works of Shakespeare
  • Euripides "The Bacchae and Other Plays"
  • R. K. Narayan "The Ramayana"
  • William S. Burroughs "Exterminator!"
  • Sophocles "The Three Theban Plays"
  • Penguin collection of Greek Literature
  • John Lennon "In His Own Wright & A Spaniard in the Works"
  • William S. Burroughs "Naked Lunch"
  • Benjamin Hoff "The Tao of Pooh"
  • William S. Burroughs "Interzone"
  • J. D. Salinger "Nine Stories
  • Lewis Carroll "Through the Looking Glass"
  • Allan Ginsberg "Howl and Other Poems"
  • A collection of Zen Poems
  • J.D. Salinger "The Catcher in The Rye"
  • Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"
  • Pauline Reage "The Story of O"
  • Viveka-Chudamani "Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination - Timeless Teachings on Nonduality"
  • Ayn Rand "Anthem"
  • Jack Kerouac "Poems All Sizes"
  • Sixth Edition, Volume Two of the Norton Anthology of English Literature (I lent the first one to someone, not sure where it is now...)
  • Fifth Edition, Volume Two of the Norton Anthology of American Literature

Massive list.

It doesn't end there.

To my right, on my desk are the following:

  • The Oxford Concise English Dictionary (which was part of the Book Award I received in High School)
  • The Canadian Writer's Handbook
  • Hunter S. Thompson "Better Than Sex"
  • Hunter S. Thompson "Hell's Angels"
  • Eco "Six Walks in the Fiction Woods"
  • Hunter S. Thompson "Generation of Swine"
  • Hunter S. Thompson "The Proud Highway"
  • Tom Wolfe "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby"
  • Hunter S. Thompson "The Great Shark Hunt"
  • Hunter S. Thompson "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail"

To my left, on my desk is a mini shrine. I have a Tibetan Buddhist Bell and the head of a Tara. I used to keep some Buddhist prayer beads out here as well, but now that the kiddo is old enough to reach my desk, they have been moved to a place where he can't touch them.

This is where I create and where I usually feel most comfortable. Why am I thinking so hard about creation and the space I surround myself in? Two reasons, I suppose. First is that my Story Telling event will be happening in about a months time.

I'm nervous but I also feel somewhat ready for it. I need to send an email to all the people who have so graciously volunteered to tell stories to give them a run down of what I need for them and what they should expect of me. I am nervous to do so in case any of them have suddenly decided they aren't interested anymore or have forgotten that they have made the commitment. I promise myself to get it done by the end of the long, Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

The second reason is I am starting to think and prep for Nanowrimo. November is coming up fast and I am in the prep stages for this challenge. I tried it last year and was able to complete it, even with a one year old running around. It was difficult and I shut myself in for one month but I think I can do it, I feel I can do it. I have the start of a solid idea that, if done properly, could turn into something fantastic for the kiddo. I plan to write a diary of sorts, which will be a record of the second birthday of my son. He will be turning two on November 25th and I want him to remember and know about all the funny and crazy things he did at this age, because my god he's incredible. The amount he talks and knows and does blows my mind on a daily basis. I want him to know about it all. I also find that I constantly ask my mother "did I do that at his age" and she can't remember. She once said she wished she has kept some sort of record so she could answer me. I am going to do that and I will use Nanowrimo as my starting point.

I'm excited about the concept, but also nervous about it. Am I up to the challenge?

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