Week 19: Impatience | There's always a Workaround

If you ask me what I consider my biggest character flaw, it is impatience. It makes me physically uncomfortable if I listen to people telling stories in a long-winded way (which I am guilty of myself, occasionally), take 20 minutes to say goodbye either in person or on the phone, if someone walks too slowly or lingers in shops or exhibitions forever. I just want to run and escape. Likewise, I really hate waiting for things to happen, for people to show up, etc. When I finally could pick up the new - smaller- desk I had ordered for my study/guest bedroom, I couldn't wait to tear up the flatpack and start assembling it. The instruction manual showed a pictogram of two (!) people, which I chose to ignore. Yes, I was expecting my cousin to visit that evening, but a) I wasn't planning to assemble furniture with my guest and b) I am IMPATIENT and wanted to do it right away. I quickly realised why 2 people were recommended - in order to fit the 4 parts together, you needed to make sure screws and rawlplugs fit into their respective holds, which required one person to hold/lift and one to guide them. Since the parts were not particularly heavy I eventually managed on my own, realising that the finished desk was a bit shaky and a few drops of wood glue (none included and the one I had at home had dried up) wouldn't have been a bad idea. I decided to shove the desk to its intended corner, when I realised I would have to give it a 360° turn. In order to achieve that I lifted it onto my rug and slowly started dragging the rug, when the bloody thing started falling apart or rather one of the side parts tilted to the side and then came off with a cracking noise. A few swear words might have been uttered as I observed the mess. Splinters of MDF everywhere, 2 gaping holes on the side where rawlplugs and screws(now bent) were and 4 separate parts again. Yay. Not. I managed to reassemble the desk right in the corner, realising that the two craters in the MDF were of course on the visible side. Where else. As much as I am impatient, I am not someone who likes to look at eyesores. Instead, I had the brainwave to cut the styrofoam that had protected the desk parts in its box to cover the mess, covered it with a nice Japanese fabric and stuck it onto the side as a little pinboard. It looks almost intentional, don't you think? :-p Since this desk was very cheap (which explains the quality, or lack thereof) I don't mind treating it as placeholder of sorts while I go on the hunt for a more solid specimen.