A Room of My Own: Part 2

If my closet is a tranquil retreat, then my craft room is a cave of chaos.  Just kidding.  It's pretty tranquil there, too.  I spend many a happy hour soaking in its colorful comfort, making stuff and watching TV.  This is what I look like when I'm at it:

Very different from my coiffed pics, I know.  The husband took the first and third outfit pics just this past week.  There was something kind of funny about changing out of my quarantine couture (i.e., pjs) into real clothes, makeup and all, then scrubbing my face and putting my pjs back on.  Funny and satisfying, like I had the best of both worlds.  And like I was putting something over on the world, too.  

Remember our pal Tammy Torso?  My true blue (and red and yellow and green . . .) outfit model?  Now that I photograph my outfits on the floor (and on myself), she's joined the ranks of the retired.  Which means that she gets to live a life of leisure next to my stock boxes, forever clad in two crinolines and an old crop top that never quite fit.    

No doubt about it, having a room (or two) of one's own is sweet.  That's why Cheryl is so upset when her she-shed burns down in that Allstate commercial.  I know that I'm super grateful for my rooms and all the peace they give me.    

Because every woman needs a place where she can hide out from the world for awhile.  

And also stash her mannequin.

A Room of My Own: Part 1

 

It was Virginia Woolf who said that every woman -- and more specifically every woman writer -- needs a room of her own.  To express herself, collect her thoughts, and escape from domesticity (i.e., dirty dishes and spit-up).  As a woman with lots of thoughts -- and things -- I went ahead and claimed not one but two spaces.

The first is my closet.  When I look at everything in it, I find it hard to believe that most of it was once crammed into the bedroom in my Brigantine rental.  Moving into my house was like learning to breathe.  For the first time, I could really spread out and embrace decorating.  Also, avoid getting black and blue marks every time I wanted to finagle access to a certain bag/pair of pumps/feather boa.  (Side note: I hate that something as fab as a feather boa is named after something as awful as a boa constrictor.)  Sometimes, I just stand in this room and look around as if I've never seen it. The world falls away, sealing me in my bubble.  I feel like Rapunzel. Minus the super-long hair and captivity.

Now, in my eighth day of coronavirus-inspired self-quarantine, I'm more grateful than ever for my sanctuary.  Although I've (happily) spent the last week in pajamas, it's nice to see my wardrobe waiting.

That said, stay tuned for the second installment of A Room of My Own -- and see what's behind door number two.

Book Report: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

I was excited to read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by "The Office's" Mindy Kaling.  The title really spoke to me, as did the contrast between Mindy's fun pink top and perturbed facial expression.

In some subconscious attempt to prove (if only to myself) that I also read "real" books, I used this Virginia Woolf bookmark.  For the record, this attempt was completely futile.  The last time I read anything by Virginia Woolf was in high school, and even then when I said I liked To the Lighthouse I was lying.

Anyway, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? is laugh-out-loud funny.  Really.  I was yukking it up like a hyena as I turned the pages, prompting the bf to ask, "What are you reading?"  (This might be a good place to add that the book was a gift from him.  He deserves that much, if only for being cool with serving as my foil on so much of this blog.)

Here are a few parts I particularly enjoyed:

"Here were some titles for my book that I really liked but was advised strongly not to use:

When Your Boyfriend Fits into Your Jeans and Other Atrocities

The Book That Was Never a Blog

Sometimes You Just Have to Put on Lip Gloss and Pretend to Be Psyched

The Last Mango in Paris (This would work best if "Mango" were the cheeky nickname for an Indian 

woman, and if I'd spent any time in Paris.)

So You've Just Finished Chelsea Handler's Book, Now What?" (7)

Then there was Kaling's take on romantic comedies, which were very much like my own (and I suspect most women's).

"I love romantic comedies.  I feel almost sheepish writing that, because the genre has been so degraded in the past twenty years or so that admitting you like these movies is essentially an admission of mild stupidity.  But that has not stopped me from loving them." (99)

Kaling goes on to list several common romantic comedy heroine stereotypes.  My favorites included "the klutz," "the ethereal weirdo," "the woman who is obsessed with her career and is no fun at all," and "the woman who works in an art gallery." (100-103)

Now, I'm ashamed to admit that I, like many Office fans, assumed that Mindy Kaling was like her superficial and sometimes manipulative character, Kelly Kapoor.  Kaling herself pokes at this assumption, going as far as to list ways in which she is and isn't like her onscreen persona.  Here are a few things I didn't know and would never have guessed about her before reading this book:

She graduated from Dartmouth.

All through high school she was a book-reading nerd.

She got her big break by writing and acting in a play about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck called "Matt and Ben." Its poster boasted the tagline "Friendship isn't always about good will."

She's also a writer and co-executive producer for "The Office."  (I know, I know.  Despite years of watching, this somehow escaped my notice.)
    
Of course, now I can't help but watch "The Office" with a fresher eye.  Just the other night I caught the booze cruise rerun and realized that the outside consultant Michael hired is Kaling's best friend Brenda.  I knew this because her character's name was also Brenda and because she looked just like her picture in the book.