THE BARE FLOOR

I've been working on making my office ... well, an office, instead of a storeroom. This has not been a particularly easy journey. I simply have too much stuff, and my office seems to be a catch-all for everything.

I need to learn to part with stuff. Especially old stuff. Do I really need to keep the galley proofs for books already in print? Should I keep the bound manuscript (now published) of something I blurbed last summer? How about those old issues of Reminisce magazine that I will never read again?

But the funny thing is, in the past couple of weeks, I can see more of my floor than I've seen in a long time. It really is a nice floor, too. Oak, and in really good shape. (As opposed to the floor in our guest room, which was once the bedroom of a teenager--not ours, the previous owner's daughter. What did that kid do? Roller skate in there?)

Despite all the progress I've made, the desk is still the sore spot. There's far too much crap on it. (Does anyone really need three coffee cups full of pens, markers, pencils, letter openers, scissors, and emery boards?)

I haven't worked on my writing at this computer in over a year. Thank the maker for laptops. I set mine up on the dining room table and when I sit in front of it, usually manage to crank out my daily word quota.

Speaking of which ... I guess I'd better head for the dining room, or else I'll get sucked into the Internet and surf for the rest of the day.