I should clean my desk more often, because it’s full of surprises. There’s a system to my desk even though most observers would simply label it a “disaster.”

Reports including city budgets, initiatives and studies that are often used for references are piled to the left of the keyboard, on the floor or an adjoining desk or chair. Mixed in are police reports, organizational newsletters and annual reports. Business cards, notes and reporter notebooks are right in front, and on the right is all the stuff I plan to get to along with letters – yes, I still get letters, although email and texts are the way of the day. The phone is somewhere there, too.

The phone is what prompted me to tackle the piles that had grown to avalanche heights. Reaching for the phone was becoming treacherous. It was time to dig it out.

I started by lifting the keyboard. Business cards spilled out as soon as the floodgate was removed. Here were the names of scores of people, many I have known for years and whose contact information is in my phone and others I had to search my memory to place if I was lucky. What was I to do with all of them? Even if a card would be useful at some point, how would I find it? A few of the cards were saved, their information later entered into my phone. There wasn’t much point to saving reporter notebooks that had served to write so many stories, and they went into the trash, too.

Then I unearthed the notes from readers I couldn’t throw away. There were several from Grandmother Gloria Walker, whose bold handwriting and colorful cards always cheer up the day. I pulled out another card festooned with hearts. It was dated Jan. 21, 2018, and in neat cursive belying her Catholic school education were the words, “thank you for helping me relive and recall my blessings.” It was signed by the late Florence Pagliarini, who we had featured in a story. I dug deeper and came up with a card dated Oct. 15, 2010, from former Mayor Scott Avedisian confessing his nervousness on being roasted to benefit the Warwick Boys and Girls Clubs. The roast was a success.

Then surfaced a card bearing the state seal dated Oct. 2, 2015, that seemed especially meaningful in light of developments in the last week.

Signed “best, Gina,” the note referenced a one-on-one interview held the week before, but had nothing to do with the resulting story, politics or the state of the state.

The day of the interview, Carol asked me what I had planned for the day. When I said I would be at the State House, she suggested I bring something for the governor.

Carol’s zinnias were especially splendid that summer. A plastic glass bearing the burgee of the Narragansett Yacht Club, a prize from a Thursday night regatta, became the vase to a fistful of brilliance.

I found the State House in its summer mode. Capitol police waved me through the metal detector. The corridors were empty. No one was around. The rotunda was bathed in sunlight and as I climbed the stairs a middle-aged couple was descending.

“Oh, how nice,” the woman declared. “You’re bringing flowers.”

In one of those quirky, unexplained reactions, I blurted, “I knew you were coming.” She brightened and we stopped to talk. The couple was from the Midwest and was on a self-directed tour of the State House. Her husband explained they try to tour the capitol of every state they visit. Then he revealed he was a mayor. I don’t recall the city, but that led to my question as to what he thought of our then “new” governor, Gina Raimondo. He had done his homework and brought up her work as general treasurer addressing an inadequately funded pension system. He was a political junkie.

At that point I was starting to run late for my interview, and I was about to wish them well when Raimondo came out of the office and spotted us. Raimondo and the mayor hit it off and in no time exchanged the name of at least one Democratic bigwig they mutually knew. The couple continued their tour and I was ushered into her office, where I gave her the flowers.

She said it was a first that a member of the news media had given her flowers. We talked for 45 minutes, but naturally, the flowers were the topic of her “thank you” note.

Coincidently, I was talking to Jody King on Monday. He was distraught that the bay has been closed to quahogging for 10 days on three occasions in recent months because of heavy rains. He’s been out of work and it’s hurting.

Then we started talking about Raimondo’s nomination as Secretary of Commerce. I learned for the past 25 years he’s delivered little necks to the governor once or twice a year and more frequently to Gina as a reminder that “Narragansett Bay is one of Rhode Island’s biggest assets.”

“And you know,” he said, “I get a handwritten note from her every time.”

“I can’t wait until she goes. I can’t wait to bring clams to Washington,” he said.

I know what we’re going to plant this summer … zinnias, lots of zinnias. If I can’t make it, maybe Jody will deliver them. She deserves a giant RI bouquet.