Slum sweet slum

Yeah, I know these pictures are crappy; that's because they were almost too dark to be able to see anything, and I was too lazy to take them over. So I just brightened them up in Photoshop. Anyway, this is the view in from the door, looking out at the freeway, which was really loud, but I slowly got used to it. None of my candles were lit when this picture was taken, so things look really dull. And my walls are bare. And my room is messy. But my lamp (a near-twin to the one in the living room) was still oso cool. My bed was down on the floor because I was too cheap to buy a frame and didn't want the one at my parents' house.

Looking back, you could see my closet (it was huge, and had space for three doors, but only actually had two—go figure) and the mess on and under my desk. I controlled the fuse-box, and it was ugly (I later covered it with a shawl). This side of my room was intensely boring when this picture was taken, and I didn't like that I didn't have speakers on my computer (my headphones are on the chair in this picture, but you can't see them). My desk was more IKEAware, and it was almost as big as a bed, but it was nice to actually have a desk again after sitting on the floor all summer.

Why take a picture of this? Because it was SO cool! That's a mantilla (man-tee-ah) that I bought in Spain. It was handsewn, not machined. I put it on the wall because I didn't know what else to do with it. At the time, it was nearly the only thing on my wall (only Hokusai's wave ended up coming with me from the dorms, because I finally tired of anime posters after nearly three years of them). You may be able to tell that my window's open in this picture; that's because my window faced west, and my room got beastly hot in the afternoons. I needed curtains too, because those blinds made a sound like a loudly-dying cat when you tried to use them.

Looking back towards the door, you can see the single coolest feature about my room at that time: the mirror. It was there on the wall when I moved in, and neither of the guys had one (not that they really care), and it made me happy (happy enough that I stole it when I moved out). It made me happy especially when that candle in front of it was burning, because the reflection was really pretty. You can see my ultra-cool gargoyle bookend-aka-doorstop, sort of, and that funny-looking pagoda thing that the candle is on was actually a soap dish from Fred Meyer—it was so cool it deserved a picture of its own, but I never took one. And I own a hell of a lot of chemistry and Japanese books.

And that's it for the tour of the apartment on 7th, because I didn't feel like taking pictures of the downstairs bathroom (which was across from my door), or the guys' rooms (for reference, Jeff's door was directly to your right when you left my room... his closet was pretty much behind my desk).

Extra bonus round! Better pictures of my room, dimly