Welcome to my study.

Jewel's been on me about not blogging, and I agree I've been remiss. As it's Sunday morning, and as I still have some warm coffee in my mug, and as I'd like to delay further preparations for -- shudder -- the beginning of the school year, I figured it'd be a good time to get caught up.

One of my favorite parts of our new place is my office:

Brief tangentially-related digression: depending on how familiar you are with my office furniture, you may know that I used to own a glass-top corner desk. Note the past tense. While moving my things out of my storage unit, my aunt and I were schooled, rather dramatically, in the finer points of thermodynamics. Due to the temperature differential between the climate-controlled storage unit and the hot, humid U-Haul truck, one half of the desk's glass top demonstrated its strict adherence to the second law of thermodynamics in speedy and furious fashion. Translation: as I was holding it, a massive pane of safety glass shattered in my hands.

The point of this overly verbose story? I now only have half of the former corner desk, and I actually like it. It's forced me to set up my office in a much more compact, cozy way -- and I also think it'll force me to keep my limited work surface clean and organized, which is an influence I will definitely need during the depths of fall semester.

The other aspect of my office I'm really happy about is that there's enough room for me to have my drums permanently set up. I've yet to play them, but I'm sure I soon will. In any event, it's much better for them to live in the house than to stay out in the garage, continually expanding and contracting, growing ever more warped and out-of-tune in the process.

I've also started acquiring some neat office furniture, specifically two chairs I'm pretty proud of.

The first is a rolling desk chair that I bought (for the low, low price of $5, I might add) at a sale at Jewel's former elementary school in Kinston, Bynum Elementary. It was a bit dusty (decades of chalk, I suppose), but some Pledge cleaned it up pretty well. You can see it was well used; I really like the wear pattern on the arms.

The second is a neat 60s/70s-era chair that I first spotted at a yard sale in our neighborhood yesterday. I drove past it going to and from breakfast, but didn't stop. Then, returning from errands later that day, I spotted it sitting on the curb in front of the same house, yard sale now over. Apparently -- and much to my disbelief -- no one wanted this gem, and the laws of driveway economics reduced its price to free. I threw it in the back of the Golf and sped home, eager to show my newfound treasure to Jewel. She was, admittedly, less enthused than I. Oh well. This one, again, has got some obvious wear going on, but I absolutely love the detail on the seat and back. I feel like this could have come out of the offices of Sterling Cooper. (Related side note: apparently, since Mad Men's focus has shifted to the newly created Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, the furniture from the original Sterling Cooper set is up for auction. Anyone want to buy me a couch?)

I've also dressed up my office with some neat decor elements:

Clockwise from top left: DeLorean scale models (both stock and Back to the Future versions); Lego miner exosuit; rehearsal and performance turtles from the Lab! Theatre production of Arcadia, along with Shakespeare action figure; pennant from the Albany College of Pharmacy, my Grandpa Smith's alma mater; and vintage Mickey Mouse bulletin board, a childhood gift from my Aunt Denise. I've also got a ton of posters (especially those from my acting career) that I need to get framed and find space for.

Overall, it's a pretty neat little room. I'm proud of it, and I enjoy being in it.

To finish things off, allow me to explain the allusion made in the title of this post. "Welcome to My Study" is a weird -- weird -- little YouTube comedy series. The first time I saw it, I laughed until I cried. The first time I showed it to Jewel, she seriously reconsidered both my sanity and our relationship. See (and decide) for yourself. I recommend episode 4; the bit about plates had me convulsing on the floor on first viewing.

Enjoy (either the videos, the remainder of your weekend or -- hopefully -- both).

-- its