Desk Landscape Tourist

What lives on your desk?
I like going to office buildings and looking at the personal items on the desks of staff members. It gives me a window into their world view, and their priorities. Coffee cups are on most, and sentiments on these are particularly insightful. The one that says PEACE may be trying to transcend a stressful job, the one with Eagles speaks of seeing things from a different perspective, and a John Wayne airport mug might mean they work to travel. The one on my desk says: Visit a 1000 Story Building. If you think about it, you'd be surprised where you might find such places in the U.S.

Photos that smile at me daily are people close to my heart but physically far away: my daughter Kim, adopted mother Vera and California cousin Suzie. Other people's happy faces live in photo files that I view pretty regularly. Two stones, one of marble from Italy the other black from California serve as paperweights as does a red glass chile.

The monitor stands on platform that allows a wicker basket underneath collecting all responses from magazine, anthology and book publishers. A three hole punch lives next to it so I can store them in a three ring binder when the basket gets full.

To the left of that, a glazed pot with rainbow stripes holds a collection of cheap black Bic Round Stick Grip pens that I love. I bought it in Akron almost a quarter century ago. It's been on every desk since, from Orange Park to Charlotte North Carolina to Beach Dreams. It's one of two things I remember buying from the Pier One, which was then half a block away.

To the right of the monitor stand tall file boxes filled with writing magazines, next to half a dozen screenwriting tomes. Underneath that shelf rest two small shoe boxes collecting postal receipts and miscellanous papers. On that corner of my desk is a white cordless phone with the ringer turned off. The red light blinks when a call comes through.

Topping my large desk are several ivys panting for water (which reminds me I need to water them...) and an aloe vera that seems to thrive when I forget it. Next to them several books in which pieces have been published. Since I work from home and not a commercial building, incense, pillar candles and tea lights adorn the top shelf along with one old-world relica clock. My prized desk ornament is the sculpture Thankfall bearing my daughter's face and upturned hands.

What's living on your desk that you can't bear to live with out? What do you have that's unique?