refinish my desk

OK, I will put in 2 hours a week on this stupid desk for the rest of the year. This desk has been such the albatross for the last (has it really been that long?) ELEVEN YEARS. It just needs to get done.
So, this very week, I am buying more sandpaper for the stupid desk I have come to hate but won’t let beat me.

This is the desk I have had for over 20 years. About 10 years ago, I decided to strip off the million layers of paint and stain it a nice sexy rich-looking stain, and my desk, to which I used to stick gum when doing homework, would then be ready to accompany me to adulthood. That was 10 years ago. The paint is more persistent than I am. It has come off in ugly clumps, and no amount of sanding, buffing or chemical stripping is doing a complete job. Were I not so ashamed of it, I’d post a picture, so at least the other desk-refinishers wouldn’t feel so bad. If I don’t get this done in 2006, I’m getting rid of the desk. I think.