Writing Prompt #5

 After years mostly dormant, I am attempting to work myself into being a writer again. To that end, I did a simple Google search for "writing prompts" and chose the first link listed, which included a total of 20 prompts. My goal is to write from a new prompt each day, giving myself 10 minutes before calling "hands up, utensils down" (so to speak), and then posting the unedited result in this blog. The post below is today's entry.

 

"Describe your favorite room in your home or apartment."

  

Our den, though not exact the center of our house, is the center of our home. Cindy and I spend much of our non-working time awake on the large tan sectional sofa (which we bought to replace the ratty old green sectional sofa that was, for a while and unbeknownst to us, a second home to a family of rodents), her at the end nearest the kitchen and me anchoring the corner in the middle. Our two pups usually join us, either on the sofa with us or watching out the windows of the French doors that face the backyard, home to squirrels and other intruders.

 

The room’s wood paneling walls are painted a deep burgundy, what we used to call “Midtown red,” a hue probably less popular with real estate agents now but that still fits my 1990s-forged  definition of Classy. The TV is in the corner opposite the crux of the sofa, which we watch on occasion, though less often than we read on our phones. We eat all of our meals at the short, square coffee table, which also serves as a makeshift shoe closet.

 

The den was an addition to the original 1950s house, and it’s draftier than any other room. In the summer, we sometimes install a window air conditioner to fight against the afternoon heat and direct sunlight that invade this west-facing room. In winter, we sit or lie under the extra blankets that we keep stacked near Cindy’s end.