Virginia Woolf once wrote, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
Well, now I have one less excuse to write my Great American Novel. Here is my room:
It’s so CLEAN!!!!
This is a short list of things that will not be allowed in my room:
- Sticky fingers
- Legos
- Nick Jr
- cymbals
- whining
- kvetching
- malingering
- moaning
- farting
- dirty dishes
- Gogurt
- any of those TV shows with Hitler or aliens or Hitler’s Aliens
- Juice
- Glitter (with exceptions made on a case by case basis for drag queens)
- Glue
- Glitter glue
Any stains on the carpet will be made by ME. Any books left lying around will be left lying by ME. If the window is left open, it was left open by ME. The only person flopped out on the couch in front of an open window with a book…shall be ME. I will NEVER walk into the room and find anyone else already in there because no one is allowed in this room except by express invitation from ME. Seriously, I am going to put a sign on the door like a teenage girl.
My Grandmother Eunice’s platform rocker. I loved this chair when I was little because it was low enough to let even the shortest legs reach the ground and rock. Not that any short legs will be rocking in it anytime soon…
A short list of things that will be allowed in my room:
- daydreaming
- napping
- lolling about
- lollygagging
- ruminating
- vegetating
- cogitating
- staring
- lounging
- sprawling
- contemplating
- musing
- pondering
- mouth breathing
This morning, I snuck down there for five minutes to sit in Grandmama’s chair and look outside in peace. Out one window, I could see three fat birds waiting in the sourwood tree for their turn at the feeder and the moon hanging white against the morning sky. It was quiet enough in my room to hear the moon.
Once I get a couple more bookcases in there, I will officially have more bookshelves than books for the first time in my adult life. I hesitated to put a TV in there–it’s a sanctuary, after all–then I thought about being able to watch a movie with cussing and/or kissing whenever I wanted to. I’ve got a table that will be my writing desk and a futon for flopping. An old traveling trunk that Richard found in a dumpster for my coffee table. His grandmother’s floor lamp from the 1930’s to read by. A painting of a mother and child that G gave me a few years ago.
That shelf? That shelf is high enough that I can put precious things OUT OF REACH. There’s the print of a sleeping puppy’s belly that I bought in an antique shop in Bath, England. Tiny dachshunds I picked up in a model train store in Aachen, Germany or some at the Lakewood Flea Market. Copies of Vermeer paintings I brought back from Amsterdam. And a sampler I found in my Aunt Mary Fuller’s things after she died. She was Grandmama Eunice’s younger sister and a real sweet lady. It reads, “Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.”
Grandmama Eunice’s baby sister, my Aunt Mary Fuller. left this sampler. She was a sweet lady.
Amen to that. Now get out of my room.
Bliss!
I need to install a deadbolt now!
love it!
It’s like your barricaded door!
Get it girl! Also, Hitler’s Aliens is my new band name.
hahaha…we sing folk music about immigration reform and the Monroe Doctrine…
You forgot silly putty, dog hair, boogers, crumbs, mooching and fear.
My allowed list would include being sick – I want time to be sick, instead of feeling that I have to keep going.
I will add all of these to my sign on the door as soon as I get more glitter pens!
Time to be sick…. girl, that is sooooooo luxurious!
I have a room like that and it’s a Godsend, and I only have one child — it’s as much to have space away from my husband as it is space that’s child free. I have to use our Guestroom — so when we have Guests I have to give it up, but that’s not too often so I’m fine with it. It’s just so wonderful to have space thats all mine to decorate, be in and –okay, control. My daughter and husband know that they have to ask permission to come in and they are okay with that. I didn’t have a space like this when we lived in Athens and my daughter was 2-7 so I really wanted one when we moved. You will love YOUR space!
I was about to buy some tchotkes at Target the other day then I thought, “I can go to flea markets and antique stores and COLLECT lovely things again!”
Oh my. One day I shall have the south of Wesleyan version of this. I surely hope. Love it.
You will! At least buy a little pre-made playhouse for the back yard and claim it for yourself!
That is not only doable, but appealing. Thanks for the idea. <3