It’s become obvious in the last couple weeks that working on my couch is no good for my body. It doesn’t matter if I’m hunched over my laptop or sitting back with relatively good posture — when I stand up I feel about 20 years older than I actually am. The bulk of the problem is that I sit cross-legged to support my laptop, and I’ll sit like this for an hour before I get up to do something.

It’s no good. We have a desk for my husband’s computer, and occasionally I’ll use it while he’s at work or otherwise occupied, but overall the corner of the couch is my desk. Last summer I first heard of a standing desk in the form of a tutorial on Offbeat Home and was intrigued by the concept. We had just moved and our bookshelves weren’t yet filled, so I gave it a shot. I didn’t have it, but the bookshelf is in the corner (depressing!) and we really need the space; we’d already ditched a broken bookshelf in the move and I couldn’t remove two shelves from the little space we had. I’ve experimented with it here and there, without much luck. My netbook does not lend itself the proper alignment when standing.

The topic came up again when someone on a freelancing forum I follow brought up that he was blogging his experiments. So I ran with it. I was creaking, my least favorite pants no longer fit my fat ass, here was the forum post — sign from the universe to try this out for real. This was last Thursday. More TL;DR, if you’re in the mood for an adventure of exhausting proportions. If you want the short version: it’s been a couple days, and for the most part I’m digging it. I find I move a lot while standing. You can skip the rest without missing anything.

We actually had all the things I needed by sheer serendipity. When we visited my parents in January we brought my sister’s old tower along to fix up and give them; she let me have her mouse and keyboard, since I wanted spare peripherals for the server and for when friends brought over their computers for repair. My buddy Josh had just given me a monitor that we thought had a bad power supply, and August had a TV of the same size that had a working power supply — but thankfully before I started experimenting with power supplies, I used a spare power cable and discovered that the monitor actually works. It’s a little picky about turning on and my distro refuses to recognize its native resolution, but it works great. (And I can tilt it into portrait mode, though I’m discovering no practical use for this feature.)

Then it was a matter of figuring out the right standing setup. When I was waffling, I put one of our folding chairs on the table and used the netbook. It was not really great, but I concluded that I wouldn’t die. So I ventured out on my quest. I initially wanted to find some shelving unit or something to serve as a dedicated desk, rather than rigging something up on the table. Despite my general decision to avoid the Salvation Army, I swung by to see if they had anything. They didn’t. I took a back route on my way to Cartridge World and as I was driving through this residential area I saw the most perfect handmade shelf thing sitting on the curb with a ton of other stuff. It’s literally exactly what I needed. I drove by twice before working up the nerve to park (about a block away on streetside parking), walk over with Miles, knock on the door and ask if they were tossing it. I felt like a creeper (and said as much) but really it was a great victory, from a social anxiety standpoint.

They were cool with it.

It was bigger and heavier than I expected, but I managed to carry it braced on one shoulder while holding Miles’ hand and walking to the car. Without a sidewalk. Victory! Except it turns out I overestimated the size of the RAV4. I spent an hour in 20 degree weather trying to get this thing in the trunk, tied to the roof, removed one of the backseats — anything. I finally give in when I realize that Miles (being very agreeable in his carseat) was getting cold and I was rapidly losing any parental goodwill possible. But then I have to move the thing back to the curb. Miles was getting shivery and I didn’t want to carry it, but I went for it. Thankfully once we crossed the street a nice guy walking by helped me carry it back. There were some kids outside doing the “Free stuff!” thing, and I just explained that I couldn’t fit in my car. Later that night, after Andy was home from work I cleared out the back of the RAV entirely and drove back just in case, but it was gone.

I refused to let this stop me! I wimp out on a lot of things that would be better for me, and I refused to let this me one of them. It’s really hard to live when you’re cracking and popping and limping when you get off the couch, as it turns out.

While sitting around the apartment griping about how perfect this piece of shelving was, I look over at the dresser we keep our television and stuff on. (Super adult, I know.) It’s got this track of space. I confer with Andy to confirm that it’s not going to be too much of a hassle, and get everything set up. My netbook looks like Neo wired into the matrix with all the peripherals and the spare speakers connected to it, but it works. At some point this weekend I intend to drill a hole in the back of the dresser and put the netbook in the top drawer. And put the Nintendo in another drawer. Finally: another reason to use my drill bit!

The first night I didn’t use it much, but enough to realize that standing barefoot for long periods of time is unpleasant. I folded up one of the many blankets to stand on, which is a sort of temporary solution. A decent pair of shoes or some sort of actual mat may be in my future. The second day I was in so much pain even when sitting I had no idea how I was even functioning. It took me about an hour of wincing every time I reached for my coffee cup before I realized that I was probably in paid because I spent an hour manhandling a heavy shelf. Whoops.

I’m finally starting to really get a feel for the thing. I think my keyboard and mouse could be higher, but I found I was getting antsy when I was just sitting on the couch with the other laptop — I actually took it to the bathroom and finished writing my last post while standing over the washer. I find that when I’m standing here typing I spend more time shifting (and dancing) than when I sit. I’m still sore — there’s an awful lot of sedentary activity in my general routine, after all — but I’m enjoying it.