Sunday, February 08, 2009

Office Decor in Hard Times

Shana has changed jobs recently. Until this month she's been working in a residential mental health facility with children, but recently she transferred to group therapy with adults. It was time for a change, and this opportunity came along at just the right time. As a bonus it's even closer to home. This weekend she had access to her office, and it was time to decorate. Aunt Rita and I went up there with her today to see it and help her fix up her space.


First we moved all the small items out and cleaned everything up. Then we hauled the desk and bookcase around to an experimental position. The office is not very big and we wanted it to be as functional as possible with as few pieces of furniture as possible. We hung pictures, arranged her books and accessories, and tried out the looks and function of the room from both sides of the desk. The ergonomic people will be in next week to be sure her setup is ergonomically appropriate. Then off we went to select some plants. Because Shana's last job was in residential mental health, she was not allowed to have live plants in her office. She did have an office with a courtyard view of a green space, but no plants of her own choosing. Her new office has deep window sills and a southern exposure, so we installed several nice plants to liven up the space. It look really nice, and she's quite happy with it.


On a trip to Edmond this evening to deliver a dinner to Samantha (part of her birthday gift from Shana) I noticed something too hilariously weird and strange not to stop for a picture. Right around the corner from Sam out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw what was unmistakeably a bunch of classical gods and goddesses gathered around a trash bin. I wanted to stop but I was already late because I'd gotten turned around in a construction area on the way. What I thought I'd seen seemed unlikely but too good to pass up. I made plans to drive past that corner on my way home to get a better look. It turned out to be true, and even better than I had thought from the street. I parked just past the house and slipped up the driveway for a better look and a picture. Apparently the current economic times are so hard that the very gods are going in for dumpster diving!

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