NINE

We move into the new house and there are three bedrooms upstairs. My parents room face the two rooms. Originally, my sister and I shared a room and my two brothers shared another room. At some point, (maybe it was my sister's idea?) my parents decided to change things around and let us all have our own rooms. I remember as a child, I had the top bunk, but I used to fall out of the top bunk once in a while. I was a sound sleeper and one time I woke up on the floor. Apparently I had fallen out of bed and landed on the floor without waking up. One time, I became sick in my sleep and made a mess. My poor mama was always cleaning up after my nearly constant barfing. I remember gingerly telling her I made a mess and expected her to get mad, but she didn't. She merely gave me a weak smile and started to clean up my mess.
I was a sickly child. I used to get terrible colds and I would get so clogged, I couldn't breathe. My mom would give me eardrops, nosedrops and then finally, I had my tonsils removed. Apparently, the doctors thought that would help me. Not really. I'm still the one who gets sick a lot.

Anyway, I ended up with the room at the end of the hall, a pink room and my sister had the green room. I remember being bossy about colors. I loved red, purple and pink and the thought of wearing a 'boy' color like green or blue used to horrify me, but boy colors never seemed to bother my sister. Now I look back and think how silly I used to be. A nice lime green is preferred nowadays. I do also have a fondness for a bright orange too.

I was a messy child. I had a penchant for collecting all kinds of teeny tiny things, as long as they were small miniatures, I wanted them. At one point, I remember my bed was covered with an arsenal of small toys, so much that I couldn't clean them up, but merely slept on them.

I'm still a messy adult. My room is covered with disorganized paraphernalia, but my excuse is that I have too much to do to keep it all pristine. You see, when I lived by myself as a single gal, I knew exactly where everything was. Scissors, papers, tape, glue, etc. all stayed where I last placed them. Not so nowadays. They all move by themselves. Or, as my kids say, 'somebody' else took them or 'somebody' else moved them. I want to meet this 'somebody' in my house but I have yet to spot them.