The Magic Drawer 1-22-09

My Thursday project was to clean out the drawer by MY CHAIR in the den, the chair where I always sit unless daughter #2 is visiting and she sits there. I imagine she usurps my position because a) it is the most comfortable chair in the house. b) it has the best view of the television. c) it is a subconscious play for power. Another, less likely option, is because of the chair's proximity to "the drawer." "The drawer" appears to be just an ordinary drawer, but on occasion I would swear it has magical properties. Only 3.5-inches tall, 11.5-inches wide, and 15-inches deep; not a large drawer by any standard. What is magical about the drawer is it appears to anticipate the every need of the person occupying the neighboring chair.



"You need gum? Here, have some."

"Broken fingernail? Have a nail file."

"Movie made you cry? Just happen to have a tissue."



What a marvelous, mystical, magical, all-knowing drawer

But, alas, last night I ruined the magic with my insane quest to de-clutter my house; I cleaned out the drawer. I violated the sacred secrets of the drawer. What follows are the magical contents of the drawer:



5 pads of paper (some from National hotel chains)

18 book marks

7 decks of playing cards

1 3 x 5 spiral tablet

6 pads of post-it notes

1 pad of post-it flags

26 writing pens

a cabinet pull from daughter # 2's kitchen

13 pencils

2 buttons

12 rubber bands

1 pair of "cheater-glasses" (magnification 1.00)

1 case for cheater-glasses that aforementioned cheater glasses will not fit into

3 Burt's Bees lip balm (2 sticks and one pot)

5 fingernail files

2 pages torn from Wine Spectator Magazine

5 Sharpies

2 cuticle "push down" things

1 bottle of lotion

11 hair elastic bands

a sheet of flower stickers

a metal star

a bag of vitamins

7 binder clasps

lemon-butter cuticle cream

25 paper clips

3 fingernail clippers

1 toenail clipper

a tube of extra-gentle cuticle cream

1 highlighter

a book of matches (Monte Carlo in Las Vegas)

2 hair clips

a purple plastic Easter egg

a mini hair brush

2 calculators

a ceramic tile (once used as a coaster)

a package of purple Hyacinth bean seeds

a package of chocolate dessert mints from Harrigan's Restaurant

Scissors

1 bobby-pin

1 business card (Sylvie Putnam - Pro-Style Optical

A Christmas card

a nail

Stim-U-Dent package

1 plug adapter

1 Texas wine coaster

A Kennedy half dollar chocolate coin

9 safety pins

2 blank books (one with misc. notes, one with with stock quotes from 2001)

8 purple envelopes

1 birthday card

2 blank cards

10 - 21-cent USPS stamps

a tube of Carmex

6 3.5 index cards

a key chain

a monogrammed metal 'sweet & low' holder (monogrammed with "E O" - this belongs to Big Red

a tin of chocolate Velomints

a barrette

a book review torn from a magazine on Graeme Gibson's The Bedside Book of Birds: an Avian Miscellany

Something metal that looks important

a magnet

2 small brass picture frames with photos of daughters

3 High School graduation photos of random people

A "Hunger Action Month" button

a penny

a push pen



Trust me when I say the magic, having been reduced to common, household "stuff", will never return. I suppose the draw of THE CHAIR will now be diminished as well. I'd be willing to bet that daughter #2 won't even sit there the next time she visits.