2003-04 ~ Year #17

This was the year that Kelsey and I painted my room blue [preceding that adventure with painting HER room in Custer purple … “Pocket-Rags” – that’s what cool people wear! :]. We had the grandest time painting my walls a lighter shade of blue, then sponging a darker blue on top, all the while listening to Adventures in Odyssey and making up fantastic stories together. We didn’t quite make the “professional grade” with the ceiling [tell-tale traces still reside there!], but the adventure of it was worth every bit of sweat and meticulous detail.

Today, I sit in my room, and thank God for this little haven of my own … the very first room that I could ever call my own. Always before, I had to share a room with a sister or brother, but when we moved here, I finally got a place to make all my own. It’s had it’s changes in style over the past nine years, but it’s still my most favorite place to retreat to. Just looking around at the things that make up my life here in this little room warm my heart to no end … a bouquet of dried roses on the wall … the little boxy boy sitting on my shelf … the bookshelf with over 200 books on it … the old desk that’s been in our family for ages and which quite literally scents everything in it with the sweet smell of it’s pine wood … the white lights around the periphery of the room … all the “CYT” things – awards, secret pal gifts, buttons … my frog prince that sits atop the bookshelf, waiting with lips puckered … my scrapbooking nook … rows of journals … and Odyssey albums … pictures of dear friends and quotes on note cards … candles … bits of things from all over the world – Jamaica, Honduras, Russia, Scotland, England … a school book-bag in the corner … a dried pink rose above my window … a stereo that no longer works … things stuffed in the closet and under the bed. I keep protesting that if I get any more stuff, my room will burst! It’s almost time for a lil’ place of my own, I’m thinking …

But no … for a while, I will stay here in this little house … in my little room, where I’m homey and cozy, and I will enjoy it while I can. The time will come when I have to say good-bye to it and all the memories it holds, but for now, I can savor this east-facing room o’mine … and dream a few more dreams here.