Hello readers of Just Jennifer! My name is Caroline from An American Girl Moves to Vienna …the ongoing saga of me, living in America and wanting to move to Austria. I started the saga at beginning of this year and this is my first Bloggerstock post, and, well, my first guest blog post EVER.

The topic this month is “The Story of What’s on My Desk” so the first question I asked myself was – which desk: the work desk or the home desk? My desk at home is really more of a kitchen table – in fact, it is the kitchen table – so the story there doesn’t go too far: a laptop, usually a coffee cup or a glass of water, and sometimes my husband with a plate of food. Alrighty then, there ya go. There’s my story! Nice to meet you – please come enjoy my blog!

Hmm. Perhaps I should focus more on the “real” desk, the desk at work. I work in a library. Just saying that conjures up many images for people, romantic images of sitting amongst the books, in the quiet and calm of an intellectual haven. Alas, it is not quite that romantic. I have an office – an office with a desk and a computer and a printer and a phone and it feels strikingly similar to the office I had when I worked in corporate America. There is nothing fanciful or romantic about it. There are no toppling piles of books, no stacks of cards from ye olde card catalog to be sorted or filed, no craft supplies left over from a recent program for the kiddies. It’s all rather spare and orderly, to be honest. Boring, really. But this is by choice. I don’t like piles, I like folders. I don’t like papers and files strewn across a surface, I like them all in their particular place, in a drawer, on a shelf. I suppose that is the librarian in me. I do stop short of arranging my notes and notebooks in Dewey Decimal order, I swear. It’s just that messiness and lots of stuff everywhere gives me anxiety, overwhelms me, renders me useless – not something my employers would appreciate, I’m sure. Having a free, clean, clear surface helps me breathe; keeps me productive. Something the bosses do tend to like.

But before you write me off as the most boring girl in America, a girl with a desk and office that looks as though no one lives or breathes or works there (and thank god, the gods, the goddess or whoever/whatever that the US will soon be rid of this dead weight), I do have a redeeming feature. There is something that I need almost as much as I need unfettered space – color. Pops of color and bits of design: a green glass pen holder from a flea market rather than black plastic cup from Office Depot, a red coffee mug, and a collection of tschotschkes in the corner, not because I like toys so much, but because the Rubik’s Cube keychain, the stress ball that looks like a lemon, and the Shh-ing Librarian Action Figure (I kid you not), all add color, literally and figuratively. A bunch of old notebooks with interesting covers, some bought, some hand-collaged, are nearby, not as resources for past information (which they do all contain), but because they bring that splash of color and fun into my visual field and make me smile. I try not to go overboard and I don’t do “cute” so well (not that I’m opposed to cute, Just Jennifer!), but I need color to add life, to add balance. It makes me feel creative and interesting, to be honest. It offsets the fact that I’m in an office, with a desk and a computer, a printer and a phone. I’m not an artist, but I like to play one in my head, and this is what helps me, this combination of utility and beauty ~ beautility?

So, that’s me, Just Jennifer Readers. That’s my story of my desk. Now it’s your turn. What’s your story? What’s on your desk?

And, p.s, thanks for reading!