I was quite worried when you mentioned the news of possible layoffs coming, and am now quite sad to hear that you were among those who lost their jobs. I hope that, as the pandemic clears (we can only hope that it clears as swiftly as it spread), you will find something worthy of your considerable talents quickly. Your workspace looks quite nice.

I’m rolling towards my retirement (which should happen shortly after the Dallas Pen Show, unless COVID messes that up, too) and wondering if I will have some normal work time before I head out. I have moved the cat tree in the living room, put out a white six foot folding table and set up a workspace of my own. I grabbed a Thunderbolt Display that had been left behind when a visiting professor left the department, hooked up a mechanical keyboard and a good wireless mouse to my venerable MacBook Pro, and my computing need are solved. Apart from the cats thinking that the table is their new cat tree, it’s working very well. As the “shelter in place” time looks like it will extend more than the current two week order, I have started putting more personal touches, which is where the pens come in. Until today, they were laid on they table with my paper. I had to make a support visit to my office today, so I brought my Dudek Pen holder (I don’t remember the exact model and I don’t see it on the Modern Goods website (it has two grooves for notebooks and came with two ink bottles)) with me when I returned home. I still need to bring my office ink stand home, but my workspace is starting to look better – more like my work area. In some ways, this is a trial run for setting up an office space for retirement.

Thanks for all that you do and stay safe! I truly hope that you can find a good job soon!

I’m sorry to hear you, too, are looking for work but I’m glad you’ve found a place of your own to write, think and plan for the future… whatever form that may take. My fingers are crossed that you find a good position soon.

Your desk looks great–so much tidier than mine, that’s for sure. I was already teaching online, so that was no big change, but moving our writing center entirely online has been a challenge. We do have good staff support, though, so that helped.

Love, love, love the bunny ears scissors! I’ve never seen it anywhere else. So cool.

Oh, Mark! Please rest and heal. My heart goes out to you and your family!