remember this picture?

yes, this is my office. she looks like this all the time, not just when she wakes up in the morning. i guess i could soften this image with explanations about how my little bird builds nests around himself on the floor of this space with the contents of my purse, or how this room is right by the back door and has become a popular place to shed clothes, packages, et cetera upon entering the house. but it’s too late. you have already seen my kitchen.

you know how i roll.

for the next sixty days, i am putting myself through the re[frame] program, a “productivity system that is built specifically for creative people.”  two of my friends have employed this system and are now downright evangelical about it, so i went to the website last thursday and paid the sign-up fee of $42. later that day, i purchased the required school supplies (note cards, labels, and among other things, a shredder!). now the creators of re[frame], heather jassy and jodi carter, send me daily emails that tell me to sort the stuff on my desk into piles labeled “DO, FILE, IDEAS, and DELEGATE,” for example.

so far, i’m having fun, and i no longer have the urge to don a hazmat suit upon entering my office. i’m also starting to see things differently. i enter my closet and think about how exciting it would be to receive an email telling me to box up all the maternity clothes. last night, as i was getting a fork from our toothpick-infested silverware drawer (the monkey is to thank for that one), i fantasized about a directive in my in-box reading, “and now it’s time to liberate your forks, knives, and spoons from toothpick explosion debris.”

in case heather and jodi don’t cover these types of things in re[frame], i went ahead and cleaned the drawer. already, i feel better.

look out, world. there is no telling what’s going to happen with all of this creativity once it isn’t crumpled under a pile of maternity clothes, toothpicks, and un-filed papers. maybe i’ll find the cure for the common cold! at this point, i’d settle for being able to find my keys.