Bedside Manners

I got to thinking late last night as I settled into bed with a Knitpicks catalog and a book that our bedside tables can tell the world our story. The loose, icky Kleenexes because you have a cold, the small stack of books that keeps growing because everything looks so good, the half-finished knitted sock complete with threatening looking double pointed needles, the child's latest handmade whateveritis, and so forth. All of these things comprise the detrius of modern living.

This is the stuff people REALLY want to snoop on, not what's under the bathroom sink in your guest bath!

My bedside table currently holds the following:

1 very dead cell phone, complete with leather case(this tells you I don't really like to always be available, and that I tend to be a private person); 1 half-finished Star Trek novel(not really very good, or I'd be done by now)--I am thinking about not finishing it, but the thought of leaving a book undone makes me nuts; The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris, because I love thought-provoking essays that are contemplative in nature, 1 dusty bobby pin from when my hair wouldn't do what it was supposed to and I was thoroughly disgusted with it; the balled up remains of a ball of Knit Picks Imagination sock yarn--and I have absolutely no idea what its doing there and I don't really care;1 almost empty bottle of hand lotion from Bath and Body(colds make your skin really dry); 1 mostly-empty can of La Croix(the cold made me thirsty); 1 tube of Burt's Bees(colds make your lips crack, especially in winter); two screwdrivers(because I had to put the inards in a lamp and one just wasn't enough!); and a seashell from a trip to the beach with my family filled with all sorts of little treasures--a sterling silver Liberty head dime, a real wheat penny, a bicentennial dollar coin I won in a writing contest in fourth grade, a shark's tooth I found on a girls' weekend at Folly Beach, and a bunch of really pretty, really tiny shells.

So. What does all this junk say about me to a snooper? Hmmm. I'm a little bit of a clutter-bug, a bit of a Luddite, I love to read, both silly trash and deeper things, I have more bad hair days than not, I'm such a voracious knitter I apparently do it in my sleep even when I'm sick and don't remember, I love sweet smelling things, I'm trying hard to be more handy than I am by nature, and I am very sentimental, and a little childish. And one more thing: I hate to dust!

The table itself? It's an antique leather-topped table with a crystal lamp. Covered with dust.