Smugly Satisifed
Posted on March 10, 2008
Filed Under homeownership, milestones, writing, redecoration, room of my own |
I’ve got it! Eureka! I’ve go it! It’s Starlight by Muse - that’s the song that’s been eluding me for over a year now. And they’re tricky - that band, offering the song only as an album purchase on Amazon. I may cave and buy the whole damn thing because it’s really the perfect tune for treadmill running. And it’s all about the music. If you’re moving to the right beat, the workout goes tripping by with hardly any effort at all. Oh, and it also helps if there’s a bunch of sweaty men around checking you out. The hot eyes of judgment and wanton lust can provide true athletic inspiration.
After a satisfying trip to the gym this Saturday morning, I finally created that room of my own, the one that Virginia Woolf has declared a necessity for all female writers. She also mentioned that cash money is a must have for wanna-be writers. One out of two ain’t bad. So I’ve carved out the sacred space where my muse and I can reside; far, far away from the dining room that has long been my makeshift office. It’s not perfect. In fact, it’s almost laughable with its pink moldings and fuschia chaise lounge we’ve been meaning to recover since our move back in ‘06. But it was previously sort of vacant and wanting, playing host to only the cat box and a carton of old tax returns, just asking for something of importance to take place within its four walls.
The armoire that takes up the majority of the room is a lovely antique piece we inherited from my Mother-in-law but one of it’s mirrored doors has fallen off it’s hinges and is now leaning there like wreckage. The desk I’m using is a folding metal table meant for setting up bar at a holiday party. The whole thing wiggles and shakes every time I pound the keys, making the computer screen jump and shimmy, creating a lasting sense of vertigo. I’m dizzy after only ten minutes of writing. I guess the chaise will come in handy. I can lay down occasionally in order to recover my sense of equilibrium.
The only desk chair available is the old red kitchen clunker we used to use before we had counter stools. The cats have ruined the caning and the vibrant fire-engine red stain is all wrong but it’s solid and low enough to slide beneath the vibrating Fold N’ Table. So it’ll do for now.
(The list of desirables increases day by day by day. It now includes a proper desk and chair added to the original list comprised of a new bathroom on the second floor, a new coffee table after O’s Wii accident, and new dining room chair upholstery after my cousin’s three year old released her bladder all over the camel sueded seat.)
I have rescued my favorite lamp from the attic where it has patiently waited for me to reclaim it. It’s opaque fragile whiteness, it’s grasscloth shade, outclass everything else in the room. My Better Half has warned me that this burst of light, floating on the temporary bar table, is an accident waiting to happen. He predicts that it will topple into a thousand shards of milky glass. I am ignoring him because I just need something beautiful and entirely mine in the space I’m trying to claim for myself.
So here’s to new beginnings and a room of my own - cats and kids forbidden, husbands only when invited. May the real writing begin.
(P.S.Update: As soon as I downloaded Starlight and went to sync my MP3 player, the whole thing imploded and is now blank and unresponsive. I threw a little tantrum and whined to My Better Half enough to inspire his having a look. He has declared the thing DOA. This is the second MP3 player that’s given up the ghost on me. My Nano seized up after a run through the washing machine. I’m having some really bad luck with the fragile personal tunage. I may never go to the gym again. I just can’t endure a workout without the steady beat. Once you’ve had it, there’s no going back. Crap, another thing on the list of desirables. When does it end?)
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12 Responses to “Smugly Satisifed”
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i like your new room very much. nicely done.
may i say that you’ve got some beautiful hardwood floors in that room of your own!
I would kill for that room, chaise lounge and all. My room is about to be taken over by a new baby, and while that’s wonderful, I am now relegated to writing at the local coffee house.
And wow, does that make me feel old.
Happy writing in there, CCE. I can only imagine the tales you will turn out in that glorious solitude.
Since I’m pretty sure the Blog Fairy is doing the nakey-nakey with the MP3 Fairy, you should receive assistance in about 12-24 hours. If you don’t mind waiting. Or waking up covered in glitter.
Your room looks lovely (and, I should add, the floor is gleaming!). I’m glad you have it.
I’ll have to check out that music. I could use some motivation.
I’m confused. How do you plan to keep the kids out of there? If I knew that, I would probably consider not being single for the rest of my spinstery life.
Jen, Slouchy and Mrs. Chicken, thanks for gushing. It ain’t all that but it’ll do.
Jennifer, I don’t know what kind of magic you worked but that fairy sure did show up and do her thang because miraculously the MP3 player is working again. It’s a good day. A very good day.
Moshizzle, I figured that having nothing fun or toy-like in here might discourage their hanging out. So far the strategy has been fairly successful. But if all else fails I just resort to yelling and idle threats - the favorite and largely ineffectual tools of all parents.
oh, just to have your own space! heaven!
Ok I LOVE your room and may I add that I am so jealous, uh I mean HAPPY, for you! Happy, that’s it
Seriously, it’s awesome to have your own space…who cares about pink moulding and dancing tables? Enjoy! I look forward to reading your output from that inspired place.
I want to curl up in that room
A most excellent floor. Very cool and congratulations, writer. Speaking of which, you wrote “Oh, and it also helps if there’s a bunch of sweaty men around checking you out.” I can only imagine that such a thing would inspire me to run faster - moving up from plod to a full jog. Fortunately for my psyche (and sadly for my physique, it would seem), sweaty men are about as interested in me as I am in them.
Forgot to tell you - I checked “Design on a Dime” (HGTV show)in hopes of having them do your room - I was going to spin the whole “she writes a brillant blog and will be a famous novelist one day so get in there and do the room so you can claim some credit for having created the space in which she wrote her best selling novel” Alas - you need to either be in LA or Chicago - damn them!!!
Ron, never thought about that working for men too but really it just could work. Who wants to be the guy running a 10 minute mile when all the other dudes are clocking a 7 minute mile?
Ivanose, Damn, great idea. So sorry that I’m out of range for them. Sigh…I’ll just have to learn to sew curtains or plead with my mother to do it for me!