Office Space

Posted on February 25, 2009
Filed Under Daily | 5 Comments

This is where I spend my time.

Come, I’ll give you a tour…

1. When I was working as a reporter a few years ago, I met an elderly man who really inspired me — in my life, and writing. A few weeks after I met him, I went into my office, and saw a package waiting for me at my desk. He had mailed me a beautiful hand-written letter, and enclosed a framed poem he read at a poetry reading in 1970.
It was an absolutely beautiful gesture, and four years later, we’re still in touch.

2. In 2002, my family traveled to India. While wandering through some open farm land, I saw a little boy standing in front of a stack of hay piled at least 10 feet high. He was the son of a near by servant family, and he was clad in nothing but a dirty, oversized white shirt. As I kneeled down to take a photo of him, trying desperately not to scare him away, he put his finger in his mouth, looked right into my camera lens with his huge brown eyes, and I clicked.
To date, this is probably the most beautiful, real, and honest photo I have ever taken.

3. You can never have enough points of reference when it comes to knowing what time it is, and lucky for me, this clock was a gift from my dear friends, Lindsay and Kevin.

4. On Tuesday, March 20, 2007, the headline on The Washington Post’s front page read, “Iraq War Enters 5th Year,” and the picture beneath the headline was a little Iraqi girl looking at an American soldier holding a gun. It was an incredible photo, and I was deeply moved by this image. I got it framed, and whenever I look at it, I wonder if that little girl is alive, and I feel saddened, and embarrassed that my country embarked on one of the most controversial wars of all time.

5. I had a professor in college who told me, “Journalists never do it for the accolades,” and I think it was because he taught me that so early on in my writing career, that when I won awards for my student, and professional writing, it felt like the first time, every time.

6. The desktop I had for the four years I was in college, which if authorities, (or my parents) found, none of you would hear from me Ever Again. Ever.

7. The Boss got me this beautiful hand-made bowl with wooden chopsticks for my birthday. I think it can be used for eating, but it’s just such a beautiful decorative piece, I can’t imagine filling it with noodles.
(Oh, and since number 7 is so close to my mouse pad, I’ll go ahead and first say, No, that’s not a picture of me, though I know there is a striking absolutely no resemblance between myself and Vanessa Marcil. Oh well, at least I have the mouse pad, which was a gift from a friend when I was in high school.)

8. My baby. The love of my life, without whom I don’t think I could go on. I love you, Sony Vaio (yes, I’m a PC,) you beautiful, beautiful little six-pound hunk of glorious technology. You know me better than I think I know myself.

9. A bronze metal pencil case, which has engraved on it, “A writer must write what he has to say. Not speak it.” -Ernest Hemingway.

10. When I graduated from high school, a close family friend (whom I consider an uncle) wrote me a poem. He is a writer and an editor, and has written uniquely personalized poems for all of his friends’ children when they graduated. I think it’s an incredibly thoughtful, and creative way to show someone you’re proud of them.

11. A bowl of Hershey’s dark chocolate. (That’s what I snack on while I work.)

12. Yes, that’s a fridge. Don’t judge me. The blurred pictures are a few of my friends and me (sans my hijab,) and therefore, not appropriate for public viewing. Sorry.

13. A duster. I like to work in a clean space.

14. My dad’s old chair, which I have now claimed as my own.

15. A space heater — you’d be surprised how cold it gets down there, even when the weather is warm outside, or even upstairs.

16. Oops, that is obviously not a footrest.

What do you guys keep in your work/study space? Pictures of your loved ones? Lucky charms? A bag of Craisins to snack on?
Do share, I’d love to know!

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