2006-11-29 - 8:29 p.m.
Today I am happy to say that the office painting came out really beautiful. At the very first when I saw it, I didn't like it, because to my eyes, the color seemed to compress the two side walls closer together, as if my office were in a hallway, not a room. But I think part of that was that the painters had so messed up the furniture arrangement and all my stuff, that it couldn't have looked right anyway. It took me all morning to get it all straightened out, and then it looked like an actual room, again.
They really messed up all the electrical cords and how I had plugged everything in. Well, I guess I can't blame them, because there really are
Computer power cord
Computer monitor cord
Monitor power cord
Computer ethernet cord
Stereo speaker cords
Brother labeling machine cord
Emergency walkie-talkie recharging station cord
Adding machine (calculator) cord
Computer mouse cord
Telephone cord
Electric pencil sharpener cord
Small television/FM/AM radio power cord
Small electric fan cord
Printer ethernet cord
Printer power cord
D-Link Router power cord
Ethernet cable to D-Link
Two power strip cords
Extension cord
Those cords were all in a Gordian Knot and plugged in any which way when I got to work. I had to unplug everything, untangle the wires, line them out, and replug them in a logical way. The biggest difficulty with this is that they must have dropped the D-Link in one of the cans of paint and tried to clean it off, because it had paint dripping out of it and some of the cable sockets were coated in paint. Thanks to their having this accident, whatever it was, and my having to fool with it to get all the hook-ups right, this got paint on the carpet. I cleaned up the D-Link in the bathroom the best I could, it was water-based paint (it works okay, now), but put an order in for our maintenance department to clean up my carpet. However, they're getting the painters to do the clean up instead, which is more appropriate.
Once I got everything back in shape, I could sit back and marvel over how beautiful it all was. Everybody who came to see it liked it. It seems more than simply a color on three walls and a smooth, fresh coat of white on the fourth wall, although just the blue color itself is not insignificant, in that it makes me feel very happy looking at its beauty; it ends up being the PERFECT color, and completely transforms the emotional mood of the room. But, more than that, it enhances, reflects, and alters the light that comes in through the windows in a mystical way. Some people thought I had two different shades of blue and two different shades of white or off-white, but that is just how the light bounces off in various places (and differently throughout the day). Who would have thought that color could be so dynamic! Also, the architecture of the room, itself, now stands out. It's not a simple rectangular space. It has a cathedral ceiling, that angles up two stories high, with interesting details, and the windows are actually one third of a building-wide bay window, which angles out from the right side of my office. Originally, this was one huge two-story open space with room for four cubicles, but at least three of us needed private offices due to our jobs, so the space was walled in and made into three offices for us (so this really is my office, it was originally made specifically for me). I'm on the right third, so I have the right third of the bay window.
My window overlooks the kindergarten playground. I use the kindergarteners as an "audio" clock. I can tell by the sound of their recesses, lunch time, and going home time exactly what time it is. Hearing them play is truly a wonderful thing. You know those kinds of songs in which they have the happy sound of children playing in a playground in the background? That's the real-life soundtrack of my work day.
Now all I need to do is a little office "decorating". I orded on-line one of those "trompe l'oeil" paintings that is supposed to be a window looking out over some kind of natural scene. The one I'm getting is called "Mediterranean Cliff Dwellings", and is made to look like I am in house high up on one side of a cove or bay in an "Amalfi coast" kind of place, looking across the brilliant blue, boat-studded water at romantic houses rising up the cliff on the other side. I realize that the interior shape of my office looks like the external shape of those Mediterranean cliff dwellings, so it really could look like this space is in that Mediterranean coast-side location, looking out on more of the same. I will put this on the white wall, so the blue of the water will tie in with the blue of the other walls, plus the visual of the trompe l'oeil will eliminate any residual feel I first detected of the compressed walls.
Then I will hang up some other pictures, but not a lot; I don't want to clutter up the place.
Then, you know, maybe after THAT, I'll get some official work done!
�
 |
 |
�
