New digs

I spent some time yesterday moving my office stuff from the adjuncts' office (which I shared with B last year) to my own, single-person office. I didn't push the move; I was happy in the other one, but the new chair INSISTED. "Every tenure-track person gets their own office; that's how we do it here."

In part she wanted to get the guy who was retiring to clean up the office just for the general health and safety of the campus. There were a couple of dumpster-loads of stuff in there. He surprised everyone by really buckling down to it, and this past week it was painted and cleaned and the floor refinished, all for me.

I didn't think I'd be so excited about it, but I kind of am. It's huge, and since I mostly work at home, I won't be filling it with books and papers. It will probably remain rather spartan. The spartanness is a bit deceptive - those of us who are bit more technology-oriented actually have a lot of files and information - but it is all on our laptops.

I am vaguely looking around for some objets, or at least some creature comforts, that I can bring down there to put a bit of personality into the space. I suppose that the anonymity of all my past offices is a reflection of my belief that the work happens in the space of the mind, and that the physical space doesn't matter. I've never found the need to "personalize" work offices, unlike so many people I know.