Throwing this out there.

I have an assignment asking me to talk to people over 40 about the shift in technology in the office-based workplace. Anyone willing to spend about 20 minutes answering a few questions?

Domesticity.

Getting a new piece of furniture is moving out in miniature. The unscuffed, unmarked, unweathered space beneath the old piece. All the tiny objects and piles of dust waiting to be discovered. A bit of surprise seeing the empty space - you'd seen it once and then forgot - before the old one's put in. Adjusting to new circumstances and surroundings, not quite the same, having to keep looking to get used to the new sight.

I replaced a table today. A small end table, a couple of feet high, a couple of feet deep, one drawer with a charming handle and an empty shelf below. Brown plywood with wood-patterned surfaces, real metal nails holding it together, sturdy enough but for the broken drawer. I could've taken everything out of the drawer and reorganized its contents to keep it around because it still functioned perfectly well as a table; it was just the cheap plywood construction that broke at the edges and had the bottom of the drawer come out. But I saw an online offer for an end table, available for the price of "pick it up and it's yours," and I took that chance.

Roughly the same size, two drawers instead of one, real wood. The old one I also got for free, back in grad school in Pittsburgh, and it very much fit a 1970s office vibe. This new one strikes me as more of a dorm room piece. Mostly because neither of its drawers has a handle.

But they run perfectly, so it's here to stay.