Prompts

Meleah tagged me for a meme called Look at this stuff. The rules are:

A- Find five things around your house that say something about the person you are and take a picture of them.

B- Post the pictures and tell us about them.

I took more than five pictures, but I will try to group them in five areas in a way that makes sense.

1- My bookcase shelves.



Not only do I love the little flower vase, which I painted myself in one of my rare forays into crafting, but some of my favorite books are on the shelves pictured here. Among others, there are Shirley Jackson and Roald Dahl short story collections, plus Cat's Eye and Alias Grace by Marget Atwood; there's In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez and Separate Checks by Marianne Wiggins; last, there's Wide Sargasso Sea, Quartet and Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys.



The shelves also have pictures of my two biggest loves, Paula (right, at 8 months old) and Isabel (at 1.5 years old), and a little memento from Puerto Rico (a ceramic replica of a colonial-style building from Old San Juan). Looking at this particular shelf makes me happy.



Other shelves contain pictures and the photo albums of my wedding to Gabe. I treasure these, as they remind me of what a great day that was, and how happy we were when we took our vows. Sometimes, when the stresses of daily life get to be too much, I look at them and remember how cool it is to have someone on your corner.

2- My pets

I am not the kind of person that fawns over pets much. This is why I have cats and not dogs. I adopted them from the Houston SPCA a year after moving to Houston from Puerto Rico. I did it because I felt Paula, who was 3 at the time, was lonely and needed someone other than me to love on a daily basis. We had no family living nearby.

My cats are a pain in the ass, but I love them.



Mister was 2.5 years old when I adopted him in July 2001. That means he is around 9 years old now. Mister eats too much and can't be bothered to play with cat toys much. He is also a love junkie, and will sit on your lap when you are watching TV.



Lola was an 8 week-old kitten when I adopted her. That makes her 7 years old now. She has no clue she is considered a "senior" cat. And you would not think it either from looking at her. Lola is the dynamo, the whirlwind, the one who runs like crazy, chews cables, sneaks into my bedroom if we so much as crack the door open, and jumps on top of the highest shelves. She is the reason why I have a quilt covering the new living room couch, so she doesn't shred it to pieces with her claws.

Speaking of declawing, when we bought the couch last December we talked about declawing the cats so they would not destroy the new furniture. Then I did some research online, and we decided not to subject them to that procedure.

3- My bedroom



In January I used my bonus from work to buy some furniture for the master bedroom. This is my vanity table. I love it, but I don't use it nearly as much as I would like, at least during the week. I am always running late, putting my hair in ponytails and applying make up (if any) on the drive to work.

If you look closely, you will see dust bunnies on the floor. I suck at housekeeping (more to come on that).



I love this picture. It's a peaceful corner of the bedroom. I love the chest of drawers; I think it encompasses very well the style of furniture I like. The bathroom door is open, and so you get a peek of the bathtub, very inviting.

4- Art on the walls



My favorite piece of artwork on the walls is not even an original. It's my reproduction of Paul Klee's Senecio, pictured above. My favorite art movements are from the early 20th century, specifically the Modern Art movements that arose between the first and second world wars.

I also love art from Puerto Rico. This is an original lithograph I bought from an artisan back home. It depicts the Three Kings (or Wise Men) riding horses on the Puerto Rican countryside. The Three Kings and all sorts of Catholic Saints play a huge part in our artisan traditions. The practice of making wooden carvings of the saints goes as far back as the 1500's. You can see some examples or Puerto Rican arts and crafts here. I tried to find a non-commercial site to share with you, but could find none. Hopefully someday that will change.

5- The ever-present mess.

As I said before, I am not a good housekeeper. I work full-time and when I get home at 6:30 PM every day, I need to cook dinner and take care of the kids. Often, I don't have time to do housework or I am too tired. Plus, I do have issues with organization. And we have way too much crap. So I get overwhelmed quite easily. Oh, how I wish I had a simpler, sparser life.



Piles of laundry.



Boxes of crap that were in storage until recently and have yet to be put back where they belong.

And more, much more.