Nightglow Window

The Things I Look At But Don’t See

I’m a desk jockey, darn tootin, and have been for years. That means for most of the day, most of the week, most of the year (most of the last ten years, in fact) I have been in the exact same place, at the exact same time, doing just about the exact same thing.

It’s a bit depressing when you think about it.

I’m not complaining.

My little tin shack has been my home since 1999 when TransWorld SURF Business was launched, and I moved from the front building to the back. I like it just fine.

One wall is grey concrete with a huge crack in it that always gets mentioned by first-time guests. There's a ledge like a drive-through window where people stop to chat. There is a chair and a book case and a long L shaped desk where I spend my days.

Taking my place at my desk this morning, I looked up at my shelves and really considered them for the first time in a while.

Now, after a while, day in and day out, the things on the shelf begin to lose their individuality. They become a mass, an amalgam that the brain smoothly glides over.

But this morning I saw what was on the shelf for the first time in a while.

Then I looked at my bulletin board and considered it, too, curious to see things fresh for the first time in a while.

So here’s what I saw:



Shelves
• My much used and much loved Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

• A sheet metal box where finalized stories are filed once they come back from copy edit and corrections are run on them. Every few issues this box overflows and I take the huge stack of stories, remove all the paper clips, and then store the stack in the dungeon under Josh’s office.

• A rusty railroad spike.

• Photo of Christy on our wedding day, taken at Casa Romantica.

• Photo of Christy picking wild daisies in front of abandoned house in North Georgia countryside.

• Times Mirror Award for launch of TransWorld SURF.

• Four-picture frame showing Christy and I on bike tour, photo of us from Fall 1986 at her mom’s house, photo of Christy climbing Loose Lady (5.9) at Joshua Tree, photo of us on bike tour under the Chandelier Redwood.

Top Shelf
• Mug from Whalebone Surf Shop In Nags Head, North Carolina (a kick-ass surf shop run by Jim and April Vaughn, who rule).

• My five-year Transworld service mug, filled with super old candy.

• Random books (The Encyclopedia of Surfing, Southern California Surf Guide, Agents Of Change written by my friend Eric Blehm, Pictorial Atlas of The World.

• Random DVD cases (all empty) of free surf and skate movies I’ve received.

• Stone paperweight made by Hannah for father’s day.

• Dusty martini glass and metal martini shaker from the 1996 007 Snowboard Industry Conference.

• Metal-monkey-ringing-a-bell business card holder (gift from high school friend Bill Ashbaugh – need to call him soon).

• Destroyed digital camera from 2000 (now a paperweight).

• Dusty plastic plant.

• Large photo of caribou, taken in Denali National Park.

• Large photo of Karsten's ridge on Mt. McKinley at 16,000 feet. Taken from Kevin Park's Mooney airplane.



Bulletin Board
• Calendar showing six months of production deadlines.

• Cat drawing from Sydney.

• Very early postcard from SRA (which is now the Board Retailers Association.

• Postcard from Volcom’s Pirates Of California art show.

• Father’s day picture of Hannah in white business shirt and tie.

• Photo of Grubby Clark flipping double birds at the camera with “Happy New Year” written underneath.

• Matix deer sticker.

• Shaun Tomson’s Surfer’s Creed (I will never turn my back on the ocean, I will always paddle back out, I will take the drop with commitment, I will know that there will always be another wave, I will realize that all surfers are joined by one ocean, I will paddle around the impact zone, I will never fight a rip tide, I will watch out for other surfers after a big set, I will pass on my stoke to a non-surfer, I will ride and not paddle in to shore, I will catch a wave every day even in my mind, I will honor the sport of kings.)

• The telephone number to Time Inc.’s tech help desk. (212-522-7777)

• Leaf poem from Sydney:
A single leaf
has a personality all its own,
and a million words to describe itself.
If you pick up two leaves
they will not be alike.
Leaves are very pretty
Enchanting
Almost magical they are I think
Don’t you?
So relaxing

• Hotel Key From Graves601 hotel.

• Block of 12 photos: 1.Sydney angry face; 2. Me and a young Sydney on the beach; 3. Sydney and Hannah at Mt Laguna; 4. Harbor in Biarritz, France; 5. Korean temple ceiling; 6. Varenna Italy on Lake Como; 7. Carved garden rock from Korean Temple in Pusan; 8. Picture of me on top of Aiguille du Midi (3843m -- click on the link, it's cool); 9. Locarno, Switzerland on Lake Maggoire; 10. Hannah; 11. Christy; 12. Sydney.

• Photo of me in front of the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland.

• Postcard from The Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia.

• Large picture of the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic.

• Photo of me doing “The Turn” that changed my life.

• Illustrated postcard of TransWorld Business staff.

• Random pending receipts.

• Tapes from "Eye On Minneapolis" retail tour in envelope.

• Photo of Hannah at dance recital.

• Plastic Father’s Day tie made by Sydney.


These are the items that are with me, usually unseen, hour after hour, day after day, and month after month.