Full Circle

Many, many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away....oh, wait!! Wrong story.

Many years ago, when I was eleven, a "Surprise!!" baby was born into the Anzalone house. He was a darling thing all pinchable cheeks and chubby legs, brown sparkling eyes and wispy hair. And did I mention that he was a light sleeper? At the time, my 'older,younger brother', Joey was sharing a room with said cherub, Mikey. But every time Joey rolled over or made any noise, it would wake up the baby. Anyone want to guess what my Mom thought about these nocturnal interruptions? You guessed it. Something had to go. And in this case, it was Joey.

My mother's solution was to move Joey into the room I shared with our 5 year old sister, Marianna. After all, the basement was not finished, and Mom must have sleep, to keep her household running. So into our tiny room came this nine year old boy, and we hardly had room to walk between our bunk bed and Joey's bed to get to the closet. Needless to say, it was tight!

After several months, I was so desperate to get out of that tiny, crowded room, that I moved to the basement. My room was windowless, had no door, and cool concrete floors...and it was HEAVEN! I painted it "Road Stripe Yellow" to off-set the lack of windows (as if!), and filled it with white furniture and all things pre-teen. I still go straight back to late nights reading in my haven, every time I hear Lionel Richie croon "You are once, twice, three times a lady..." - egads!! YOU know those lyrics too?!? Wow, we are sooo old!

Anyway, that bedroom was always the BEST room to sleep in because in the hot Georgia summers, in an un-airconditioned house, it was always so cool! It was also always so very DARK, being windowless and all, and to this day, if you need to really get some zzzz's at my Mom and Dad's, that is the room to sleep in. By the way, it has a door now. And carpet. Oh, and it's not scary yellow either.

Fast forward, oh, 40 years or so and you will find me living in Georgia once again, after a long stint in Colorado. I now have an almost eleven year old of my own, along with soon to be seven and eight year olds and guess what?! I also have a basement room with NO windows!

This morning I went looking for said children. It was after 9 am and we needed to get a move on! I went down to the play room (aka the Tornado room, because the lack of windows makes it a GREAT place to hang out during storms) to waken the slumbering ones, and found them in the complete darkness of the play room, door closed, snoring away after their weekly "slumber party".

Like I said. Full circle. Only this time, there is no Lionel Richie.