My Desk Drawer: Making Inferences (Day 8 of the Reflective Teaching Challenge)

Today we have a seemingly random blogging challenge: What is in our desk drawer, and what inferences can someone make from the contents?

I'm going to show it all. No hiding, no shame. This is the top-left drawer of my office, which is also pictured below. 

There's a lot of stuff here: a hairbrush, Advil gels in a baggie, Excedrine, candies, a CD of a student's band (they already broke up), $5, lipstick, powder, kleenex, really old markers that are probably dried up, post-its, a hammer and a couple of business cards.

I admit I don't have a lot of nice things to say about this drawer, should I make inferences of the person (as if I didn't know who she was, I suppose the question asks). It's messy and filled with randomness. Why are the Advil in baggies? Why is the Advil label scratched off, the word Excedrine written on top? Can she not just buy a bottle for her office? This is not the drawer of an organized, calm person. This is a person who is overworked and has little time to get her S#%^ together. Either that, or she just doesn't care about having her s#@* together, which could be a sign of mental illness.

I guess if I were to take a kinder view of my office and drawer I could be a little more sympathetic. It's nice her student thought enough of her that he wanted to share his band's music with her. The handle of the hammer could indicate she once was ambitious about personalizing her office. It's always good to have $5 lying around; you never know when you might need coffee and the credit card machine is down, or someone is coming around asking for donations for a worthy project. Two shades of lipstick? That's just being prepared.

Still. It's only week #4 and already things are a mess. I gotta get it together!