A  writer’s desk is not just a desk, it is something more, a base, an inspiration, a partner and muse.

For years, I’ve done all my writing on old farm tables, and they are getting worn and  wobbly. Today Maria and I went to look inside a refurbishment store here in Cambridge called Shiny Sisters, and there, I encountered a desk that spoke to me, had a rich history, a great amount of character, and low price.

Shiny Sisters is all about re-cycling, re-purposing and re-imagining old furniture.   A fun place.

This desk is what is called a partner’s desk, two pedestal desks constructed as one single desk so banking partner’s in England could look directly at one another in the mid 1800’s. (The typewriter is not mine.)

This desk is a beast, with lots of room and lions on the drawer handles and claw legs. It is banged up pretty good, but I thought it would cost anywhere from $600 to $1,000, especially if it was being sold in New York City.

Important things will be written on this desk, it it has the weight of time and history going for it.

And it cost $230 here in Cambridge, and I bought it.

It is pretty scratched up. But then, so am I.

This promoted a major reconsideration of my study, if I write on this desk – great space for a big computer screen – I would move the farm tables along the walls (this idea advanced by my artist wife), hopefully have a less cluttered desk and a better place to store my photography equipment, major resource books and computer equipment and supplies.

Maria is hot to get her hands on all the junk in my study and clean it up, and I am eager for her to help me do it. I’m good at making messes, bad at cleaning them up. If you ever wish to see a living portrait of Dyslexia in action, come and look in my study.

It will take days to clean up my study and re-arrange everything to make room for my partner’s desk. I will not have a partner, unless you consider  Froggie twanging his magic twanger or my brooding muse.

Partners desks are notorious for being made out of high quality wood like walnut and oak. So this is going to be my writing desk, and my study will undergo a big transformation.

We also bought a homemade red book case that is tall, cheap and funky. Probably from a farmhouse. Someplace to put stuff! I have a lot of stuff.

It is a big deal for me to get a new writing desk I am psyched, and I never imagined getting a desk like this for $200 bucks.

I love this desk, it truly spoke to me, it cried out to be my desk, a new inspiration and feel and I love old and heavy wooden things. This desk is dripping with character, and I can’t even imagine how we can get it into my office.

And I can’t wait to write on it.

There are some perks to growing older and one of them is that absolutely no one things I should be involved in moving it. I agree. I have pride, but I’m not stupid.