The Flowered Wallpaper

When we first moved in to this house, the walls were mostly whitish, with a brownish-taupe in the hall, and dark green in the hall bathroom. Wallpaper occupied the borders of two rooms and all of the “Master” bathroom. That “Master” paper had large purple and green flowers (irises?) on a beige field. In this house, the Sonars occupy the “Master” bedroom. Their sleeping, their things, their bathroom are all contained in that space.

When we first moved in to this house, we were flush with the freedom and excitement of being able to do as we pleased with the walls. So naturally we wanted to paint them orange and yellow. Especially in the Sonar room. That wallpaper had to come down. We would not be trapped behind those pale stripes or smothered by the perfume of those flowers. 

Don’t believe what they tell you on decorating shows about how easy it is to remove wallpaper. That’s a lie. Removing wallpaper sucks. The only joy in the wallpaper removal came when we discovered that there was no wallpaper behind the giant vanity mirror. We wrote on the wall behind the mirror, “HI” in large, textured loops. Go look. It’s still there behind the glass.

The walls under the wallpaper were the bare paper of sheetrock, with a few scraping gouges and peeling dents from taking down the paper. I shuddered at the echoing, cold, dry, smoothness of that wall. Walls should not be so cold. Walls should not be so smooth. The paper should not feel so dry.

Texture would have to go up before we could citrify the walls. The texture on those walls doesn’t match the rest of the room because we are amateur mud workers. With the orange and yellow paint, the texture is the last thing most people notice. But I am comforted by the texture, the knife-applied strokes that bend sound and wrap the room in cozy imperfection.

Update on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 1:17PM by Eglentyne

Two minutes after I hit ‘post’ I found a picture of the wallpaper. No, not irises, and much less purple than I remembered. Anyone know the flower? 

Two mini-Sonars and the pre-citrus flowery wallpaper, c2005

10 Things: Witch

It’s Writer Wednesday (#WW) over in Twitterdom, so let’s do 10 Things to get our writer cells working. I say a thing. You say 10 Things that pop into your head or out the end of your pen. Ready? Set?

WITCH

Go!

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These are my 10 Things. Your mileage may vary.

1. Wicked Witch. For L. Frank Baum, she was a cackling, green-skinned thing, out for vengeance for her sister against Dorothy and for power against the Wizard of Oz. Gregory Maguire complicates her, building a biology and psychology for her in which wickedness is only one interpretation. Rhetorical and political only.

2. Amy is the name of the witch that haunts my stories, but I don’t really know who she is or what makes her unique. Should I make her a knitter? Or perhaps more like Nancy Drew, sleuthing and meddling?

3. Witchy Woman. Is that The Eagles? What is that song even about? Does the point of view LIKE her witchiness? Fear it? Hang on, I have to go listen. 

4. Hermione Granger. My favorite witch. Bookish, awkward, brilliant. The most loyal friend. And aside from one jealous meltdown, she does not crumble from her responsibilities even when upset. 

5. Which witch? A grammatical conundrum. A question in which we wonder what the correct use of the word is in a particular written context.

6. Witchy Poo. She was a costumed cartoon of a witch who looked just like the cartoon Helga. Orange hair, striped socks and vultures. Oh, and warts. What did she even want from Pufenstuf? I don’t know, except that he was afraid of her and I want some socks like hers. 

7. Bewitched. The domestic witch who used her powers not for the improvement of society but for domestic bliss, against the wishes of her wilder and more sexual mother. Conservative shift? Then her daughter is wilder as well?

8. Sabrina the teenage witch. Which I never watched. Not once. But somehow my brain knows the actress’s name is Melissa Joan Hart. Why do I know that?

9. Willow. Nerdy to evil. Hetero to lesbian. Shy to invidious. My other favorite witch. Both she and Hermione relied heavily on books for their power and craft.

10. A Discovery of Witches was the last witch book I read.

And now, you see, I’ve come to the end of my 10 Things and only talked about pop culture witches. What about historical witches? Religious witches? Multi-cultural witches?  

It's in the shoes

My favorite style weighs seven grams. I have nine pairs of those. I keep them in baggies in the closet with silica gel packets and athlete’s foot powder. Because you just can’t find them anymore. I got most of them on eBay from different resellers. They’re worth a chunk of change, but they shave off enough mass to hold off the fatigue at the end of a long race.

Sure. I noticed a huge difference when I switched from the nine gram to the eight gram shoes and stopped wearing socks. They get an unholy smell after a couple of runs but they’re worth it for that forty-two seconds I save. 

They wear microfiber shirts, long-sleeved and white. Mesh sun caps. Expensive wrap-around sunglasses. Complicated wrist-watches or smart phones on a bicep band with one ear hook. They stand in arrogant postures holding silver, bullet-shaped water bottles with the logos of running brands. They suck the last drop of goo from little foil energy packets.

The race winner walks by. He’s a college kid. Along the race route people called and cheered him by name. He halved their times in broken-in, stock, Nikes and a tank top. He’s eating a banana and drinking the free water provided by the race organizers. He waves at them. They smile and call his name, eager to ask him questions. He shrugs, slowing his pace only for a moment. He drops the banana peel into the trash can and jogs to his car.

10 Things: Mac

A stuffy head and creaky fingers are making my words flow like molasses today. What I need is a little writing EXERCISE. Join me? Let’s do 10 Things. I say a thing and you share the first 10 Things you think of when you think of that thing. It’s easy. Find my things after a polite pixel partition. Anyone can play!

10 Things: MAC.

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My MAC things? Certainly.

1. Hi. I’m a Mac and I’m a PC. Actually I’m a Mac. Or rather, THIS is a Mac.

2. Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. Big Mac. Why do they call it that?

3. Mac. A nickname for my step-father. A frequent nickname for people with a “Mc” or “Mac” surname or more generally for anyone of Irish or Scottish descent.

4. A generic epithet, like ‘buddy.’ Hey mac, can you spare a dime?

5. Mac, a Scottish Terrier from a Disney movie. Which one though? Lady and the Tramp? Can anyone confirm or deny this correlation?

6. Mac… Mack… macintosh rain coat. Splish splash.

7. Mac. Macadam. McAdam, the person credited with the use of macadame, a type of paving that I associate with black top parking lots. I learned this word from Janet Evanovich. True story.

8. macmacmaccamcamcam A backwards camera? Yes, reaching now. Can. I. Pull. Out. Ten???

9. Mac. Macademia nuts! From Hawaii. My grandma Flora brought these to me sometimes when she came to visit. I thought she had such weird snacks. I realize now that she was excited to share exotic foods with me. 

10. macmacmacmac HEYYY Macarena! Sonar X6 can dance the Macarena (though he knows it as the calendar song from school. Try it. Sing the months of the year—in English or Spanish—to the Macrena tune. I’ll wait.). But he doens’t know how to Hustle. A parenting lapse. I’ll fix that this weekend. 

One Stitch

I see injustice and suffering in the world and I want us to pull together and fix ALL THE THINGS. Some might think it’s foolish to continue to believe that we can do this. Some people might be overwhelmed by the bigness of the problems. But there are shining lights of hope all around us. Sparks that show how good we can be to each other. Knitters have awesome insight into the value of small actions. By doing one small thing (one loop, one stitch) over and over and over, eventually big things (blankets, sweaters, love, warmth, compassion) emerge.

The Yarn Harlot’s Knitters Without Borders is one of my favorite sparks (Knitters have super powers). There are other examples all around us. Please share your favorite sparks in the comments. The local high school here had a mixer between high-performing students and low-performing students as a way to break down those barriers and positively influence one another. An Islamic Cultural Center opened in New York this week with a portrait display that celebrates diversity and our shared humanity. People make beautiful things and help each other all the time.

What will be your one stitch, your one loop today?