Well, it was warm, and then it wasn’t. Unless you count daytime temps in the 40s as warm, which this Hawaii girl does not! Brrr. I heard the front come through last night, with the wind whipping against the house and sending icy tentacles down the chimneys. My husband said that this is GOOD, as the flowers will last longer this way. There’s no denying that the flowers are pretty beautiful right now!

The daffodil patch has grown since last week!

So this was the week that I moved furniture around in my study. I’m in a large but oddly shaped room (long and narrow), and when I moved into this room, it seemed logical to put my desks in the corner, in an L-shape. But that meant I was working in a dark cave, and I needed lots of artificial light, despite the fact that the room has a big picture window in a bump-out in the middle.

I finally got sick of the cave. I’m a Hawaii girl and I need my sunshine. I also love the views of our farm and the changing seasons. So I moved my desk right into the bump-out. This caused a ripple effect throughout the rest of the room, obviously, and consequences I’m not sure I like, but I’ll enjoy the sunshine and view for awhile before I decide if this was the right thing to do.

One thing I had to change right away was the location of my computer. At first I put it to the right because I was able to fit an old table in a gap next to the desk, giving me the entire desk to use without sacrificing space for the computer. But I developed neck and shoulder pain from staring in that direction. I’m right-handed, and my elbow was dangling off the edge of the desk as I gazed to the right. So after a couple of days of pain, I moved the computer to the left side of my desk. But my second monitor has stayed on the right, because I didn’t want to block the view in front of me. We’ll see if that works.

Lots of light now!

Your workspace is important, no matter what kind of work you do, whether you're paid or not, whether you're at home or elsewhere. I thought the set design of the workspaces in the creepy TV show Severance was telling. Here are a couple of articles that explain how the set design was done (there aren’t any obvious plot spoilers, it’s descriptive and explains how the designers came up with the design).

It’s worth noting that you can design a horrific space on purpose, and that designers in film and television do this all the time. Along those lines, if you work in a stressful space it’ll seep into everything you do. I sure hope you don’t work in a place like that. A show like Severance works in part because people recognize what they see on screen, or perhaps recognize the feeling that the set invokes. And I’ll admit that the cubicles and clunky old-fashioned computer terminals definitely rang a bell for me...and not a good one.

​Here’s a fun article from the Financial Times featuring five women writers and their writing spaces. When Virginia Woolf talked about “a room of one’s own,” she was talking about both a physical and a mental space, in my view. It’s hard to work when you don’t have agency over the space in which you do the work, even if it’s a tiny desk or an crummy old stove.

My suggestion for a pick-me-up is to move a piece of furniture this week! Alternatively, put a plant on your desk. Put your knitting chair in front of a window. Make sure you have a surface for your cup of tea next to the place where you read. Give yourself the space you need and deserve.

Final edits! It is happening! I will be out with Ever Your Affectionate in May! Right now I am wrangling with the division of the book into two pieces, in order to avoid angering the online bookstore gods (I'm apparently not "allowed" to give away my books if I charge money for them on the platforms). If I find this too onerous, I will release the book in one volume, but quietly. You’ll hear about it here in this newsletter, but I may be careful about how I put it on my website. Pretty ridiculous, but there it is.

I’m super, super enjoying the latest Netflix hit from Asia…Business Proposal! I actually read this story as a web comic on the Tapas app (here’s the teaser from Tapas, isn’t the artwork cute?) and really enjoyed it. However, when the show came out on Netflix I wasn’t very interested. Live-action versions of web comics can be disappointing. But then I saw this article in the Hollywood Reporter, which is a fairly legit industry publication. Check out this quote: 

I always like peeking into the work lives of creative people, so I was intrigued by this interview and decided to give Business Proposal on Netflix a try. What fun!

A young woman of modest background agrees to impersonate her wealthy best friend at a blind date arranged by her dad. Her mission: to behave so offensively, the date will refuse any further contact and her friend will be off the hook. What happens instead is that the man in question decides to avoid further blind dates by asking her to pretend to be his girlfriend. The wrinkle: he’s the CEO of the company she works for, and the blind date itself involved a fake name and some deceptive hair and makeup tricks. You know what happens in the end…yes, happily ever after…but not until he falls in love, chases after her, realizes who she is, punishes her, then chases after her again, is rejected, and then has to convince her that their social class differences can be overcome, because he really does love her. It’s a fantasy…guys don’t do or say these things, right? Or do they? Maybe some of my female readers have spouses or boyfriends who actually know what to say to a girl? But this is a fantasy, and a well-done fantasy at that. Very enjoyable! Check out the blind date scene here! ​

It’s been a week. I think what made me really want to do this furniture re-configuration has been all the drama going on with various people I know. No, nothing bad for me or my family, just DRAMA erupting everywhere I look outside of my peaceful home. Is it spring or is it spring, I want to know? Nothing like moving a desk to freshen up the mood and make sure we don’t go stale, and to also remind ourselves that we keep changing and that we CAN keep changing. We can do this! Stay strong and stay healthy! I, for one, will be enjoying the flowers!

Tulips in a warmer-than-elsewhere microclimate