THEA1710 Homework

Observation #1 "where"

Where: My Brother/Sister-in-Laws Attic

As I walked up the painted wooden stairs to my brother’s attic I instantly felt a temperature change. When I began walking up the stairs I was completely cool but as soon as I reached the 6th stair I could feel that the temperature was getting warmer by 20 degrees. As I reached the top of the wooden stairs I found that their attic was completely covered in plush light blue carpet. I found that in they had two twin sized beds on either side of the space, one covered in holiday decorations and one completely clutter free. I situated myself on the free bed and began my observation.
The first thing I noticed was that, in 1 short year of them living in this house, they have accumulated so many things. The Attic was littered with decorations, old baby clothes, retro antiques and memorabilia from our childhood. My first moments in the space I felt completely cluttered and wanted to get out and choose another location but the longer I stayed in there the more comfortable I got. Comfortable in a welcoming way not in a temperature way because at the end of my stay I was covered in sweat and felt like I never left Valdosta.
Once I got comfortable with the space I decided to roam around a bit and check out the interesting sights. The first thing I came across was a new batch of Halloween decorations my sister-in-law was working on. She apparently took a note from Martha Stewart’s book because almost everything in the batch was covered in Glitter. I couldn’t help think that the glue she used could have been better for the glitter kept falling off. The decorations we cute in a way that I would never associate with Halloween: Frankenstein had a smile on his face, The witch was way too cute and the scarecrow seemed to be missing a head.
The walls and ceiling were painted light blue with white puffy clouds, which I thought was odd that an attic would be painted at all. There didn’t seem to be a light but the midday sunlight from the windows shown enough light on the space. You could clearly see that this was a well loved family and their attic was filled with memories from not only their lifetime, but many lifetimes before. In one of the corners I was very much enthralled with a quilt that had to have been at least one hundred years old, if not it looked it. It looked like it was hand made from different silk fabric, all different colors, and sewn together to look like a bed of flowers. Each flower was unique so I couldn’t help but think how much time this had to have taken to make.
Next I ventured deeper in this long narrow attic and found a bathroom. The bathroom seemed at first glance to be a normal bathroom…toilet, sink, shower…but there was something odd. As I walked in I realized either I was getting taller or the room was getting smaller. Knowing I was not in Willy Wanaka and the Chocolate Factory I came to the immediate conclusion that the floor seemed to slope when I entered the bathroom the floor was angled upward as you crossed to the window. In the bathroom the clutter continued with a 4 foot tall penguin with a birthday hat, hundreds of copies of National Geographic, a collection of tin robot toys and boxes of hundreds of salt and pepper shakers.
I could have spent hours in the attic going through all of the collected items but being hearing my three year old niece downstairs singing and playing proved all too tempting and I had to go join the family. The best way I can describe the attic is if you ever got a chance to look at those “I Spy” books that had pictures of rooms with way too many things and you had to locate certain objects…this is that attic. Every movie with an attic that has dress forms, trunks filled with old clothes…the Jumanji game hiding in the corner…that was this attic.