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I’m thankful to work for a company that doesn’t like the cubicle life any more than the average cubicle monkey. So while the latest move has in a former call center vacated after the market crash, they’ve sought improvements that would keep us from thinking that we work at a call center.

When I got to my new desk Saturday morning, everything looked brand new. Only when I opened the drawers was I able to discover this desk wasn’t new:

In the other drawers there was your usual variety of crumbs and miscelaneous dust particles, but in the bottom drawer, there was a pile of what I presume to be sugar (hey, I didn’t taste it). Perhaps the previous occupant kept his drug stash in this drawer and cut it with sugar?

It’d be hard to blame the guy: he was about to lose his job, after all.

After cleaning up the “sugar,” I got to work organizing my belongings. This desk it about 3 feet longer than my last one, which gives me a significant larger work space…and gray walls. Thankfully, they took down the one between two cubicles, so we’re in pods of 4, more than in individual cubbies.

Here’s what I had done by the end of day Saturday:

Objects of note (from left to right):

In the very corner, you see my new insulated lunchbag and “coffee” mug for packing my healthy breakfast, lunch, and pre-swimming snack.

Picture of my niece Bean, of course. Going to update it with a more recent photo shortly.

The stickies hanging off my monitor are of various quotes. I’m actually going to put these and other quotes on the walls (see all that gray space?).

Under the lamp is my audiobook that I was listening to at the time I took the pic. The Passage, if you want to know.

My books. They travel with me…I don’t keep them at the office.

My plant (of course).

“My” exercise ball. We all like to sit on them, and I’ve co-opted this one as my own. Actually, my dream would be to have a convertible standing desk, but sitting on an exercise ball is also enjoyable and changes it up. Why sit on a $200 chair when you can sit on a $20 ball?