A Room of One's Own

                                                                                      

New writer's room throw pillow-first things first!

                           

Let me begin by saying that I adore my big family, and truly love having Sher, Yaj and the boys living with us. Full stop. There is nothing like the joy of seeing the whole gang gathered around the dinner table, certain people bribed with ice cream if they finish their veggies (I name no names, they know who they are), or all of us sprawled in the family room watching Peter’s current fave flick, "Kung Fu Panda" (which is hilarious, btw-when did animated movies start stepping up their game this much?) And when Ya-Jhu takes the kids to Taiwan for three weeks starting January 20, I’m sure I will be drifting aimlessly and sadly through the empty rooms, with no little one asking me to go on secret missions to find imaginary golden violins or magical acorns.

But recently I thought back to the last time I was totally alone in the house. Steve has his office upstairs, and is not on the road much anymore, so he’s usually up there working. I came up with a startling figure: I have not had one minute by myself at 122 Apel Ave. since we returned from Lewes in late August. Would I make the most of solitary hours if I had them? Probably not. But I yearn for the opportunity to find out.

Now that my writing career is picking up a little steam, my default creative space (the dining room, which is like writing under the giant information board in Penn Station) is rapidly becoming inadequate. I write a sentence or two at most, then am distracted by the back-and-forths of the rest of the household, and there goes the work session.

So I was thrilled to find out that, once our basement renovation is complete and the zillion storage boxes are moved back into place, there will be office space just for me!!! Mind you, it’s the former nursery, our fourth bedroom, which is sized more like a walk-in closet. But I don’t care!! It will be my writing lair!!! I’ve spent a good bit of time this week pricing small desks and curtains and pretty daybed covers (there will still be a bed in there for overnight guests, but I want to jazz it up the rest of the time). There are two windows that catch the afternoon sun, and I’ll have space for a small bookshelf too.

This is as exciting as fixing up my office at church, but better, because at church there is still a constant flow of random stuff dumped on sofas and chairs for the next event, so it’s never perfectly orderly. However, I have the chance to make THIS tiny corner of my world lovely and serene, and believe you me I’m going for it!

Only one problem: if I don’t produce copious amounts of wonderful, sellable essays in this Writer’s Paradise, I will have no one to blame but myself.

But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Just a few titles for my new bookshelf!