Last week a student came to my campus office to talk about class. I had an open bottle of apple juice that was about two-thirds full on my desk. After a few minutes, she knocked it over, and it ruined my papers - splashing the wall, soaking my desk calendar, and running under my computer.

I was kind of irritated, but I kept it together, because I didn't want to make her feel worse. Years ago, when I was a temp at Pepsi, on my first day of work, I spilled a cup of coffee on my desk and it dripped into the carpet and got all over everything. Of course it was my desk, but I imagine I felt about as bad that day, new and nervous at my low status job, as this student did.

Today I got a new computer. It is nice, and it has a flat screen, which is the only thing it has over my home computer. My old work computer was a relic, on its last legs, the mouse barely tracked. The monitor alone took up about four times as much desk space as the sleek new machine. When the antique was taken away, the guy who installed the new PC said, "you may want to wipe your desk, it is kind of sticky."