Tuba Boy's Room Is Almost Done

Tuba Boy's Room Almost Done
Originally uploaded by sunasak.

I am sure Lee and Beccano think I am trying to kill them, but I pushed them to get Tuba Boy's room in reasonable shape last night, so I could at least get a photo before he shows up on Saturday and starts flinging stuff all over the flat surfaces. Now we have almost everything other than the train photos that will go over the bed (same ones that were there before--they coordinate and look very manly) and shelves that will go over the desk we moved in there. Now the guest room is practically interesting--we did find the kids' old crib when we moved the bed--sigh, I guess when we first moved here I was still hoping for another baby. It is covered in Jeff's baby powder, so more cleaning is in my future. We have a lot for a garage sale now!

You can't see the blue wall in the photo. That is because it got messed up when we were moving the dresser and has to be touched up, sigh. The curtains are actually dark blue, not black, like they appear. They match the dark stripes in the bedspread. I hope Tuba Boy likes it that I included his afghan that I made him and his ancient "I love trains" pillow that I made when he was 2. He still loves it. His other "treasured" blankets and quilts are in the closet, if he wants them. And I just thought the gigantic stuffed tiger from my sister looked cool.

He should be happy that I put a phone in the room, and that we are pretty sure we can hook a television to cable in there. He should be able to do homework, relax and be a teen in this room. I hope. And maybe not destroy it.

Serious Note

I've been noticing fellow bloggers talking about how women are treated when they are victims of sexual crimes. A pretty sad story was posted on the Yarn Harlot blog where a judge wouldn't let words for what was done to the woman be used in her assailant's sexual assault trial (like he couldn't be called assailant, or her a victim, or the rape word used). A local blogger posted about her experience with being assaulted as a teen and how it greatly affected her.

It makes me realize that almost all of us have some kind of story in which we had to do things we did not want to do, or had liberties taken with us. I know I do (one story funny, where I bit a kid who tried to "do" me at a sleepover), two not). I am lucky that I have good boundaries and confronted all but one person who treated me unfairly, but I did have the typical experience where someone with power over me (a professor in college) touched me inappropriately, but I was afraid to say anything. Later I found out he had also done the same thing to a friend--if I had spoken up, maybe she'd have been spared the humiliation?

If women were able to talk to each other, and felt safe making it public when someone with perceived power over them took advantage of that power (parents, adults, teachers, bosses, spouses whatever), perhaps we'd have a lot fewer sexual assaults, rapes, and domestic violence incidents. But, it's hard. A start is sharing your own stories.