Room With a View

Thanks, Karen!

When my sister took this picture - on a girlfriends escapade in New Orleans in 1999 - I had no idea how much it would mean to me.  It's always been a nice reminder of a wonderful time.  But now I keep it above my desk as a piece of inspiration.  This was from a third floor room of the lovely guest house where we stayed.  The place had not always been so posh.  At a far and relatively quiet end of Bourbon Street, the Lafitte Guest House had once been a run down flophouse. (Conveniently located next to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop - a bar that has been in continuous operation for centuries.  A charming boite best viewed in candlelight. Seriously charming and also seriously the kind of place that the responsible mom part of me would not want to examine too closely in the light of day)

Legend has it that Tennessee Williams  lived in this room in his less prosperous days, writing while looking out at approximately the same view.  Just imagine those tall, newer structures aren't in the background.  Legend also has it that Mr. Williams ran quite a tab at the Blacksmith Shop - at least until he disingratiated himself; perhaps by never settling said tab.

It's not that I need a view of a bar. (And I'm already living in something of a flophouse.) What I need is a view from a writer's eye.  A view that reminds me to look at things like a writer.  (And maybe a bit of a reminder that one won't always be trapped in the flophouse.  Or that the flophouse can always be upgraded!)