A Place of My Own -- Robin

I’m the type of person who will suffer through something horrible and never complain, just so other people won't think I’m a whiner. Like, for example, watching hour-long shows on the History Channel. My husband finds them fascinating while I find them painful. But I suffer through and act as if I’m not totally nauseous.

I’ve been having another problem lately with suffering while I’m writing and not complaining about it. Well, all that stops now. I am now an official complainer. My issue has to do with the nuts and bolts of writing. And by nuts and bolts, I actually mean nuts and bolts: I can’t get comfortable in my chair!

I’ve tried working at three different coffee shops, the library, the local college, my kitchen counter, my guest bedroom, and I’ve even tried sitting in bed with my laptop. And every time I can’t get any work done because it’s either too hard, too soft, too distracting, too much like a zoo, or too close to my comfy pillow and a remote control. (One time it was because I was too close to the pastries.)

So I gave in and complained to my husband…about everything. At first he was upset that I didn’t want to watch the History Channel anymore. But he got over that as soon as I told him I wanted my own writing room. And to my surprise, he said, “Honey, you deserve one. Let’s do it.”

Now, when we bought our house nine years ago, I took one look at the adorable little sunroom and thought: This would be a perfect office. But we had lots of boxes and, at the time, we were under the impression that dogs deserved to sleep indoors. So it became the Box Storage/Doghouse room.

Then, when my son was born, we moved the dog’s room into our bedroom (like I’d let him sleep outdoors!) and we changed the adorable sunroom into a child’s playroom. And as you can see from the picture…he played a lot.


Okay. So I’m very embarrassed to show you that picture. But once I got the green light from hubby and convinced my son that it would be a good thing to move his toys into his room, we started the big conversion. And now…I have my own writing room!!


As you can see, there was one condition: the Spider-Man pinball machine had to stay. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. No more complaining from me!

- Robin