The Secret Garden

I've traditionally considered greenery to be a luxury. While plants are nice to have around, they're not something that I'll often think to miss. (For that matter, when plants are around, they're not something I'll often think to water. But that's another story.) Perhaps it's unfair, but I tend to think of plants as scenery – a sort of singularly needy sculpture. Consequently, I never particularly noticed our previous building's complete lack of ground-level greenery.

No, the dumpster doesn't count as "ground-level greenery."

When Landlord B showed us around our future domicile that first afternoon, though, the flower beds around the entryway were sufficiently striking that I both noticed and commented on them. "I like landscaping," B explained. "I've planted beds of flowers out here and in the back garden."

What a garden it was!

Deskwork

'ELLO! You've discovered the secret hidden message!

My desk was among our first moving day casualties. I'd honestly never expected that it would survive as long as it did – its warped particle board construction and $20 Craigslist sticker price didn't exactly inspire confidence on the durability front. Sure enough, no sooner had we begun moving it from my old room than it began ejecting its components across the floor. A few of them left a trail of sawdust all the way to the dumpster.

I did keep the base and even used it as a surface for placing expensive and fragile things. In retrospect, this wasn't the best idea, as the truncated surface proved wobblier than a three-foot aspic perched upon a teeter-totter. But don't take my word for it.

Utterly unacceptable! Even so, I didn't even start looking for a replacement for three months. As a good friend likes to say, why wait to procrastinate?