Sleeping Arrangements

Something as simple as who sleeps where doesn't seem all that complicated, until my family tries to do it. In my house there is my parents' room, my grandma's room, MAC's room (MAC is my dad's oldest sibling), and MAM's room (MAM is my dad's other older sister).

When I was super little (in a crib little), me and my siblings used to sleep in the hallroom (exactly what it sounds like). It wasn't until I got a little older, that MAC decided that we could use her room as a bedroom. (How nice of her.) It has hideous pink wallpaper which we aren't allowed to change and when we first started using it, it had a yarn rug hanging on the wall as well as a creepy painting of a doll that my grandma did. For years, we weren't allowed to move any of these decorations. (It's amazing how used to a creepy doll painting, that freaks out everyone, a person can get.) About the time my older sister started middle school, we started covering the walls with posters and pictures. It helped a lot. A person can only take so much pink. Eventually, we did manage to convince my family to let us take down the doll painting and the rug fell down. We left it.

Now, on to MAM's room. For the longest time, MAM's room was set up as my grandma's sewing room. It worked well like that until me and my younger sister started to hit middle school. We seriously, could no longer manage to share a bed. It was becoming physically impossible. Not because the bed was small, but because my sister's a bed hog. It was then that we had the brilliant idea, that the room that remained unoccupied for three quarters of the year could be used as a bedroom for one of us. As siblings so often do we fought over it. My mom set up a schedule so that I'd have it for three months, then my sister would have it for three months. We loved the idea of having our own room. Eventually we got lazy with the trading, so I ended up with the room.

MAM being the crazy person she is, tried to put a lock on the door, so no one could use her room for the nine months when she wasn't actually at our house. She didn't even do a good job of it. She used the same lock as the rest of the house. Somehow, she didn't seem to think that people who live in the house would have a house key. We even moved my grandma's sewing stuff to the hallroom (probably the most logical place for it, but leave it to us to take over ten years to figure this out.).

Now I refer to MAM's room as my room, but it isn't really. It's more or less a hotel room (without the option of a cleaning service). I get to use it for the months when MAM (or others) aren't visiting. While I love having a room that I can use for myself it proves to be a pain in the ass at times.

1) The blue wall paper
     a) When I was little and had a nightmare about a monster, the monster would always be blue. I always associated monsters with MAM for various reasons. I also always associated blue with MAM because of her wallpaper.
     b) Blue is a color that makes a person want to be productive. In a room lined with blue wallpaper you feel antsy. I always feel like I should be doing something when I'm in there. While it's useful for doing homework, it's maddening when you're trying to relax.

2) MAM's crap
     a) The closet in my room is filled with MAM's crap.
     b) Since the closet is full, there is a huge pile of boxes in the corner next to the closet.
     c) There are to many pieces of furniture in a room that is not big enough to hold them. 5 tables, 3 chairs, 1 bookcase (filled with religious books), 1 bed, and 1 doll cabinet.
     d) The doll cabinet is right next to my bed and is packed full of dolls who stare directly at my bed. (Try waking up from a nightmare and seeing that.)

3) Summer
     a) Every summer, when MAM and whoever else comes out to visit, I have to move everything of mine out of my room. If I leave a single object of mine, it leads to an insane argument. (No joke we've had an argument over a shoe that got shoved under the bed.)
     b) If my relatives come to visit before I'm done with school. I still have to give up my room and end up sleeping on the couch. This wouldn't be an issue if they actually vacated the living room at a reasonable time, were quiet in the mornings, and didn't decide to come in time for finals.

4) Decorating
     a) I am not allowed to decorate the walls of my bedroom in the slightest. I can put up a calender on the back of the door and that's it. If I put anything else up in the room it takes all of a day (max) for my grandma to notice and get upset about it.
     b) I don't get to bring furniture of my own into this room (not that there's anywhere to put it). That means that if I want a book, clothing or anything else I have to go into my sisters room to get it. I end up doing this often times after my sister goes to bed, leaving me to find what I need in the dark (or accidentally wake up my sister).

5) Space
    a) Since there is to much junk in the room, there is nowhere for me to do anything.
    b) Only one of the three chairs is actually useful and that's because I use it for my computer. 

Other Things You should Know:
1) Neither MAC or MAM actually lived in this house. They just inherit it when my grandma passes away.
2) MAM will likely try to bring out more crap of hers, which she will, without a doubt, use to take up even more space in her room.
3) My dad also has crap in my sister's room. Half the closet is filled with civil war uniforms.
4) If we had a garage sale with all the crap that my aunts have left here, we wouldn't actually make much. There's nothing useful in their junk and no one wants to drive out to the middle of nowhere to look through this useless junk.