Bumper Stickers and Outer Space

So I am totally behind in blogland because life keeps getting in the way. Funny how it does that sometimes. Jobs, meetings, housework, okay, okay, and I may have had a social event once or twice too. Anyway, the other day I was out and about and the car in front of me had a bumper sticker on it that something along the lines of "Aww let Pluto be a planet." Now goodness knows why, but that inspired two thoughts for a blog. One being bumper stickers and Two: planets and outer space. I am not anti-bumper stickers, I have one, but mine is pretty safe and neutral in the grand scheme of life, but I tell you some people's bumper stickers are scary. They're so scary and preachy--can't we all just get along people? Others crack me up and I'm sure people think I'm nuts when they see me alone in my car laughing at apparently nothing. Anyway, I'm not going to go on a bumper sticker tangent (you're welcome), instead let's talk about space.

First, I find it weird that something can just stop being a planet. Pluto was a planet when I was a kid. Of course when I was a kid, there were only four oceans and now there's five. Did you get the memo on that? Because it happened several years ago, but I just found out last year. Guess I'm a little slow. Good thing I found out before I did my unit on oceans. Anyway, so as I was driving along, I started thinking about Pluto, the former planet and do you ever wonder about space? I haven't given it much thought since an astronomy unit years ago in school, but thinking about Pluto got me thinking about space and do you ever wonder if there's anything else out there? I'm not saying I do or I don't think there is, truthfully, I have no idea. If there is life out there, I hope it's nice and not like some scary movie that I can't handle watching. Alf would be okay, he seemed nice enough. And I think ET was nice too, right? Though truth be told if Alf or ET showed up on my doorstep, I might pass out or freak out and go running out the back door far far away out of fear. Okay, there's my little tangent. Hopefully, you don't think I'm even crazier than we all ready know I am for my unusual blog topic. Happy December All! (um, how is it nearly December? Wasn't it Halloween 2 seconds ago?)

Reflection on My 20's (Work, Travel, and Few Other Events)

Sooner than I care to admit, I will be saying good-bye to my 20s and hello to my 30s. I am not happy about this. I suppose turning 30 beats the alternative of not turning 30 (or any age after that), in that case, 30 doesn't sound so bad. But truth be told, I had issues when I turned 20. I wasn't happy about that, I was all omg am I supposed to be all grown up now? And I'm sure I'll have issues with 40 too. A relative of mine just turned 50 and she said 50 was a piece of cake. She said she struggled with 30, but 50 was fine. So as I face the big 3-0 I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the good (and perhaps a few not so good) things that happened in my 20s.



Twenty started off decently enough. I was a sophomore in college and I remember celebrating twice at college. Two of my friends surprised me with a cake one evening and another group of friends surprised me with another cake later. I also celebrated with friends at home later on. Sophomore year was decent enough. I ended the year by throwing shoes into a tree--yes, you read that correctly. It was a bit of a tradition where I lived. I spent the following semester at a university in Nova Scotia and I can honestly say it was one of the best semesters of my college career. I met so many wonderful people and had such a great time. I miss those days. The rest of college back home was filled with typical college things: school work, studying, partying, new friends, frustrations, fun, student government, shopping, evenings out at bars and restaurants, ice-cream, hanging out with friends, cramming for tests, getting dumped, new crushes, new friends, dancing, movies, tv, two vacations to Nova Scotia, and one to Florida (good times on all three), and I believe somehwere in there I also made a trip to Claremont, NH (shout out to Natalie, Michael, Megan, and Jess), applying to graduate school, and well, you get the idea, typical college stuff. And I got to be a bridesmaid for the first time in my life (little did I know I would be a bridesmaid many more times in my 20s). I also went skydiving, what an amazing time that was! Sometimes I still can't believe I did it.


I also got accepted to the graduate school I really wanted to go to and the September after graduation (after a not so much fun summer job) I moved to Boston to work on my Masters degree. I had a fabulous time during the two years I spent in Boston. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I couldn't find a job in my profession. I had many fun times and fond memories while I was in Boston. I also studied and worked and learned a lot (in and out of the classroom). The Boston days also consisted of several weddings, a trip to Vancouver (fabulous! Vancouver is gorgeous), one to Martha's Vineyard (had a good time though it would have been better if we'd seen the sun) and Cape Cod, and I think it was during the Boston days that I also made it to Nantucket for a day trip. They also consisted of new friends, new crushes, a fun part-time job, lots of time waiting for the T, many trips downtown with friends, shopping, good times with my roommates, parties, fun nights in front of the tv, fun nights out, movies, seeing the Red Sox win the World Series (finally! woohoo), going to my first BC football game, a couple of apartments, crushes, fun walks, lots of weekend trips, a new boyfriend, stressing about the MCAS (I passed them all, thank goodness!), the joys and expenses of one's first apartment, the struggles of carrying groceries on the T, stressing about tests, writing papers, baking, the BHP, the Kong, learning how to do what would be my future job, my first job in my field, spending many a fun evening near Fanueil Hall or Harvard Ave. You get the idea. Overall it was fabulous. My one regret (besides not being able to live down there longer) was that I think sometimes I studied too hard instead of enjoying life, but that's how I am sometimes I guess. I also was in my best friend's wedding (bridesmaid).


Moving back from Boston to NH was tough. I did NOT want to live with my parents after being on my own for two years, but I was offered a part time teaching job back in my home town and I didn't own a car or have any money so I didn't have a lot of options. I walked to work the first two months--later I got a car. The job was only temporary so I spent another month of that year subbing and working as an aide before getting another temporary job for the end of the year. That year I was in another wedding (maid of honor) and slowly started getting used to living at home, though I was so busy I wasn't home too much and I had a boyfriend who lived out of state so I spent many weekends in Massachusetts and one weekend in Mystic, CT, (had never been there before). That year and a few other years in my 20s I also got to spend a weekend here and there in Newport, RI, which was a city I really liked. I also got to travel to San Diego, which I LOVED (the weather, the zoo, Sea World, a day trip to LA, many good times!). I did finally get a full-time permanent position that summer. I think that year I also went to Florida to visit my grandmother (I must be getting old because some of the years are blending together now!).



It was quite the school year, learning new things, facing challenges, the stresses that come with work, and meeting some great new people. I also got to go to Seattle that summer, which was wonderful and I went to Nova Scotia again (perhaps my favorite trip to NS to date). Seattle included a day trip to Victoria and the San Juan Islands, visiting a friend from grad school, and of course doing lots of touristy things. Another great trip. The year ended on a sad note, when my grandfather died. That hit me pretty hard and was definitely one of the low points of my 20s. His death involved a second unexpected trip to Nova Scotia that year, where I said good-bye and gave one of the eulogies at his funeral. On the work front, I began meeting more people at work. Socially, life was decent.



The following year included another trip to Nova Scotia and a trip to Toronto. We saw the Red Sox play the Blue Jays, went to the Hockey Hall of Fame, the CN Tower, visited my cousin, and did a little shopping. It was also the year of my first cruise. Three of my college friends and I went on a cruise that went to British Columbia, Alaska, and ended in Seattle. I LOVED the cruise. Aside from a few rocky moments (I mean that literally the boat was rocking), I had an amazing, fabulous time. So scenic and so much fun. The sights, the trivia, the shopping, the cool new people we met, the food, the glaciers, the ice-cream, the food, the games, I could probably just blog all about the cruise!).



My late 20's consisted of some amazing trips which included Belize for a graduate course. I spent 9 days there with some teacheres and guidance counselors from NH and after overcoming my initial nervousness I had an amazing trip (do you think I've overused the word amazing and fabulous in this blog? UGH!). I got to observe and teach in some schools there. I also had the opportunity to spend a day and night in a Mayan village. I met some great people, learned a lot, and at the risk of sounding completely cheesy, I'm kind of proud of myself for going. It is so unlike me to go to some random country with a bunch of strangers (I mean I got to know the strangers during class before we went, but prior to taking the class, I didn't know anyone). That same year I also got to go to England for two weeks (loved it!) to visit a friend from my Nova Scotia semester. She and her parents were the perfect tour guides/host(esss)s and showed me all around--London, York, Scotland, The Lake District. Let's just say I took over 200 pictures. :) Several weeks after returning from England, I went on a cruise to Bermuda (now don't go thinking I won the lottery to be able to take all of these trips, the cruise was a gift and quite a nice one at that!). Bermuda was beautiful and the cruise was enjoyable--enjoayble enough that I went back with some friends the following year.

And year 29 has proved to be shall we say busy. It was filled with the usual crazies of life, work, etc, but it was also the year I finally bought a home, after trying to find and purchase one for over a year, someone finally accepted my offer on a location that yes, needed some work, but wasn't completely falling apart like some places I looked it. Of course home ownership like anything else comes with its own trials and tribulations (or whatever that experssion is), but I am thrilled to finally have my own place. And of course since being a home-owner depletes your bank account, I had to fit in a trip before I made the big purchase/move in case I couldn't afford one for a while. So I went to Colorado to visit my brother, then from there to Arizona to see a friend and to Vegas to see another friend. Since I blogged on that trip all ready, I won't bore you by repeating the details. So although I certainly had my stresses (who doesn't?) and days where it seemed like my world was falling apart, I guess thinking back on my 20's, I had some amazing (and fabulous ha ha ha) times! This doesn't make the thought of turning 30 much easier, but I guess it gives me hope that perhaps the good times will continue into the next decade of my life.

20's I will miss you, but here's wishing me well in the 30s. :)

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut and Sometimes You Are a Nut

Is it just me or can some people make you go crazy? So as you know from the last blog, I had no heat the other day and no electricity the following day. In the grand scheme of life, it wasn't a huge deal, but as we all no not having electricity is annoying-- you can't see, you can't blog (had to throw that in there), you can't cook (well, I can't b/c I have an electric stove), etc. I needn't go on, I assume you've all been without power before. My biggest complaint was probably the lack of heat because I get cold so darn easily. Anyway, when I lost power and PSNH said I was the only one, I needed an electrician (correction we thought I needed an electrician, PSNH ultimately had to come out) so I called someone for a suggestion. Said person offered one and life was peachy. I set up the appointment and life continued normally for approximately five minutes. Unfortunately, said person mentioned my electrical issue to someone else who will now be known as S.E. for short (short for someone else, get it? ha ha ha, okay, it wasn't really funny at all). SE freaked out and called me at the bright hour of 7:15 this am (I was at work because it was warm there) and said this was a huge deal, I could have a fire, etc. SE had me darn near convinced my house was going to be on fire or burned down by the time I got home. As we all know I stress easily and I was exhausted from lack of sleep. Amazingly though, I did manage to be on my best behavior at work and was probably obnoxiously hyper--think I was going on fumes, but behind the perky smile I was still slightly worried about my house not being there. (Fear not, it is still standing)
A year or two ago my check engine light came on (is anyone surprised???) so I brought it to my mechanic who referred me to someone else b/c it was a transmission code. I took it there and it turned out to be something minor (ironically ages later I did have a real transmission problem, but I digress). SE had me convinced I was going to need a new car and I certainly couldn't afford one if I was trying to save for a condo so what was I going to do. I was a wreck. They fixed the problem and it didn't end up being too expensive.
The day before I closed on my new home SE found a lien on the property and said I wouldn't be able to close on my home the next day. I made a phone call, the lien was taken care of, and for better or worse I am a home-owner now, but I was scared for a little while there.
I don't know, maybe some people just always think the worst (I'm guilty of it too, remember my wood blog) or like to make a big deal out of things or maybe the above is totally irrelevant (did I spell that correctly) and I'm just nuts, but we need a few nuts in life, right? At least I know I'm slightly nutty, that's gotta make me less nutty, right? Maybe?

The Bright Side--and since the electricity is back, there really is a bright side

So I have several things I would like to whine about like the fact that I should be at The Cheesecake Factory right now instead of in my semi-cold house, my cold night last night, and the fact that I have diagnosed myself with an undiagnosted anxiety/stress/I am a freak disorder. We could call it Crazy Cat Syndrome or Crazy Cathy Syndrome? Or not...
But I did say in a recent blog that I would write about something happy soon so here are a few positive spins on things from the past week:

-My car problems the other day (and expenses) were really annoying, but on the other hand, I got it done so I don't have to spend my Saturday or part of my Thanksgiving break hanging around waiting for a mechanic

-Having no heat was AWFUL, but PSNH did come out less than an hour after I called them and fixed the problem in under three hours (there will however be a future blog about this since I like to whine)

-I don't like beer, but I learned about this dish where you make beer chicken by sticking a beer can in a chicken's bum. I'm sorry, I may sound completely freakish, but that totally made me laugh. Who knew! Speaking of learning things I also learned a new word today (zambone, thanks to a student's yogurt) and I learned that they make boots for dogs. I don't have a dog so that doesn't really impact my life, but I thought it was cute.

-I finally met some of my neighbors and they were really nice (and they made me feel young b/c one of them told me about his 84-year-old kid brother)

-Even though I can't go to the TCF tonight, I've been told someone is going to bring back some cheesecake for me

-Next week is only a two day work week.

-Unwined last weekend with the girls=good times

-I finally found time to read a book this week!

Okay so it might not have been a positive as I could have been, but I think I found some good things to say about the past week, right? Hope you all have a good weekend (I say that like I'm talking to 100 people instead of the 2-4 of you who read my blog ).

Three Hours of My Life I'll Never Get Back and Politics

So last night as I was driving home from work, a message flashed in my car that said "low coolant." Doing what I always do, when I think something is wrong with my car, I panicked. However, since I had a meeting and didn't leave work until after 7:00 getting to a mechanic at that hour was unlikely. Someone who knows more about cars than I do (which is pretty much 99% of the driving population) assured me that I would make it safely to and from work today (he was right) and to the mechanic. I had intentions of going to the mechanic this week anyway since I'm overdue for an oil change (which btw never happens, this may be the first time I actually had over 3000 miles on my car since the last oil change) and I needed an inspection. I got there a little after 4 (can we please applaud me for leaving work before 4, that almost never happens unless I have to tutor, too bad I didn't get to do something fun, but I digress) and was told that yes, they could do the oil change, check the coolant, and do the inspection toady. Yay! Less than an hour later the service person came back and told me my car would not pass inspection because of my tie rods. She then asked me if I knew what a tie rod was and I said no, so she kindly explained it to me--not that I totally understood what it was nor did my later wikipedia search help terribly much. I checked some car info website that helped a little more, but yeah, let's face it, I don't speak car. All I got was that it has something to do with steering and suspension and would take several hours and several hundred dollars to fix. Well, it has been about seven months since I've spent hundreds of dollars on car repairs so I guess I'm due huh? :( Anyway, while I was waiting for my car in the waiting room I did a little bit of work, finished one book, started another one, and watched some CNN. It's been a long time since I've watched CNN. I have nothing against CNN, I just haven't had much time to watch a lot of TV lately and I've been watching the local news lately when I've been watching the news. So anyway, CNN was on in the waiting room and it was kind of loud so it was easy to get distracted from my books. And do you know what I learned from CNN? They need to get some new subject matter. The majority of the three hours was about Sarah Palin and Nancy Pelosi. Now I mean no disrespect to Palin or Pelosi. (See look I can be unbiased and say nice things about both parties--can't we all get along people). But people after three hours of hearing about Palin's plan to run for president, Palin's new tv show, Palin's daughter on DWTS, and Pelosi serving as minority party leader, well, I just get a little sick of hearing the same thing. Aren't there other things going on in the world? Could we maybe just do one hour on Palin and Pelosi and then move on to other topics? And speaking of politics, the CNN peeps were speculating a lot on the 2012 race, people, I cannot deal with the 2012 race. You heard me whine about all the political ads for 2010, I'm not ready for another two years of political ads. UGH! So to sum up, I wasn't exactly thrilled about wasting three hours and over $300 on my car and I'm going to get fat. How does my car make me fat? Well, it doesn't, but I worked late yesterday and didn't get to the gym and since I was doing the car thing today I didn't make it to the gym today either. And Monday was my own fault because I went to the movies instead of the gym, thank goodness I have a dance class tomorrow night because I have to work 'til after 7 tomorrow, which means if I didn't have dance, I probably wouldn't be motivated to go to the gym then. I suppose the one good thing about dealing with this car stuff today is I was originally going to do it Saturday or next Wed (I have the day off), but since I did it early I can enjoy my days off. :) And the service person working today likes me because we have the same first name and spell it the same way so she gave me a discount--yet it still ended up being over $300 for everything. On a slightly happier note, despite my recent complaints, my life is not complete crap, but isn't it human nature to whine when you have to spend three hours and 300 plus $ on a car? I'll have to write about happy things later in the week. In the mean time, have a good one everyone (and by everyone I mean the three of you that read my blog).

A New Home and I'm not Home

So I was all excited to have my own place, and don't get me wrong, I still am, but now that I have my own place, I feel like I'm never home. How does that work? The past few weeks I've had stuff to do every day after work and some busy weekends. Some of it has been fun stuff, which I've enjoyed and some of it, well, it hasn't (see my previous blog re: siding). I have, however, had time to enjoy having friends over so that's been nice. Want to hear how pathetic I've become? I had last Thursday off from work and I didn't want to leave the house because it was the first day I didn't have to go anywhere--well, not until 5:00 anyway when I had a dance class (yes, I take a dance class). It was a struggle to leave the house and run errands, in fact, I'm so pathetic, I didn't go anywhere until after 2:30 and then I had to rush to finish in time for dance. I'm looking forward to spending a night in doing nothing but lounging on the couch watching tv/movies or reading a book. When did I become an old woman? I have a deck at my home and I was so excited to use it, but I was so busy cleaning, painting, and unpacking during the nice weather seasons that I didn't have time to enjoy it, and now it's too cold to use it these days, oops! Perhaps over Thanksgiving break once the house is clean, the errands are run, the car is inspected, the last two boxes are unpacked, I can finally sit and relax in my new home and actually enjoy it. But if not, well, at least I finally have my own place to whine about not being at it. Ironic.

Nightmares in Priming and Staining Part 3: The Conclusion

Several Thursdays ago when I got home from work, there was a big pile of wood in my carport,

some loud music playing, and half the siding on one side of my house was gone. The contractor had begun working on my home. Unfortunately, he said some of the stain still wasn't dry. He couldn't understsand why it was taking so long to dry, but when he moved the wood, he got stain on him--and you guessed it, that meant there was going to be more spots for me to touch up. Later, he announced that it must have been a pain in the arse (I'm paraphrasing) to stain all that wood. Well, that was the understatement of the week! He suggested that next time I should probably just stain it and not prime it. NOW he tells me this. Ugh. But I guess we learn things the hard way in life. He also suggested maybe next time I should consider hiring someone to paint--well, if I could afford it, I would, but painters aren't cheap. (I must interject here and say that despite my current whining, the contractor was a nice guy and did a good job.) I had a dance class so I left him there to keep working and he said he'd try to come back on Friday, but it might not be 'til Monday.

What I thought: Of course, it's not like I wanted to use my carport or anything, let's just leave a pile of wood there and leave me with a house with just some plywood and tyvek paper for the next four days. Where is my company supposed to park tonight?

What I said: okay, great thanks, see you then.

When I got home from work on Friday, he was back and some of the new siding was on the house. Yay! Unfortunately, the touch ups were pretty obvious. I could see many spots where the paint had come off and you could see the prime. GRRR. My one saving grace was the condo association is requiring us to have our entire condo (outside) painted by the end of 2011 so I was hoping they would forgive the boo-boos and let it go 'til next summer when I planned to have the unit painted. He left on Friday and said he'd be back Monday so you can imagine my surprise when I heard loud banging outside my house on Saturday morning around 10am. I was up, but still sitting in my pjs as I tend to lounge around for a little while on Saturday mornings. I quickly changed into my gym clothes just in time to hear the doorbell ring and the contractor asked if I could move my car so he could have easier access to the wood without hitting my car. I decided to move the car to the gym and go to the gym since I was in gym gear. If you didn't think I was a fool before, you will now. I grabbed my water, ipod, keys, id and off I went. However, as I was partway to the gym, I realized I didn't have a hair elastic. I looked all over my car for one at all the red lights I hit, but couldn't find one. No problem, I'll just stop at my parents house, they live close to the gym, and get one from my Mom or see if I left one in my old room. Well, Mom wasn't home and I couldn't find a hair elastic or even a rubber band anywhere in my old room. I did find a pair of sneakers, socks, and various other things, but no elastic. So what did I do? Not turn around and go home like a smart person, but drive 10 more minutes to CVS and buy a pack of hair elastics. Who does that? I could have gone home and got 10 for free in the time it took me to go to CVS. Anyway, now I could finally put my hair up and go to the gym. And since I took so long the wood was out of the carport and I had my parking spot back--yay! --and my weekend guest could now park in the driveway instead of down the street in what was hopefully a "legal" spot. By the end of the day, I was broke a.k.a. the siding was on aside from one piece and the contractor was paid. But guess what? I still wasn't done staining. I had to stain the bottoms of the newly cut siding and I had to touch up as much as I could reach on house. Monday the contractor installed the last piece of siding (he was one piece short so that cost me some more $) and he stained that himself. So at long last the project was done. There are still spots that need to be touched up, but I don't have a tall enough ladder and like I said, I'll need to get the whole unit painted next summer anyway. So now my next project is learning how to caulk as he told me to caulk around my windows. I hope that is easier than staining siding! I have to have some more siding replaced before 2011 is over and I'm not looking forward to it, but hopefully, the painting part will go better. Maybe I can find a contractor who paints or do it in the summer so I can paint in my caport. So as I reflect on this crazy project, which brought me an unncessary amount of stress (because I am a freak!) here's what I've learned:

-Priming sucks

-Prime doesn't easily come off of a car, clothes, skin, or hair

-Never prime and stain siding at your parents house

-There are a few people you can count on to help you through life's minor siding tragedies in the form of physical support, moral support, or just letting you whine/cry/blog and to them I am eternally greatful.

-I am in the wrong profession

-Woodpeckers are annoying

-Trying to work after a night of no sleeping is horrid

-I now understand why contractors don't like to paint

-There is still prime on my car

-I'm still not handy or a good painter, but I survived and sometimes that's all that matters

-The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray (and by that I mean I couldn't go to a cook-out on that Saturday because my contractor showed up unexpectedly to finish the job)

-If I ever buy another home, it won't have wood siding, bring on the vinyl baby!

Nightmares in Priming and Staining Part 2: The Neverending Touch Ups

By Thursday evening, I had 11 pieces of wood completely done and all 34 pieces of wood were primed on both sides and most of the wood was stained on at least one side. Unfortunately, when I went to move some more wood into the basement I noticed some of the "completed" 11 pieces of wood needed touching up so I got a tiny paintbrush and carefully touched up some wood. Of course once you start touching up a few spots you find a few more and before you know it an hour has passed and instead of painting wood, you've touched up 100 teeny tiny spots. I took half a personal day that Friday afternoon to work on this crazy project as I needed to have it done by the 27th as that was when my contractor wanted to put the siding up. The stacked pieces of wood needed to be restained, and ended up with some weird spots on them, but I did the best I could and restained them. I was productive that Friday afternoon and finished in time to cook a birthday dinner for my mom. I spent a few hours staining that Saturday too, but did not waste the whole day on it as I was having a housewarming party with my friends from high school that night. So I jazzed up a day of staining with some cleaning and finally, some much needed good times with friends. By Sunday afternoon, the painting was nearly done. I finsihed both sides of all the wood, but still needed to do touch-ups. It seemed like every time I moved I saw another spot that needed to be touched up. I continued with the weird positions too-lying on the floor, near splits, etc. to reach varioius pieces of wood. I spent post-working and tutoring on Monday touching up. My contractor called me that Wednesday and asked if he could start the job on Thursday. That was fine with me so I went to the parents' house again (and you thought since I moved out of there I wouldnd't be there EVERY day). to move the wood out of the basement back into the garage and you guessed it, Mom and I found more spots that needed to be touched up so I touched them up and thought, yay, I'm finally done painting--famous last words again. And the story continues with part three tomorrow because I need to get to trivia. :)

Nightmares in Priming and Staining Part 1

As some of you are aware, I had a bad experience with wood siding last month. A little while after purchasing my condo, I found out I have to have any areas of wood siding that have rot replaced by the end of 2011. So I had some people come look at my place and give me their opinions on what was rot, what was not, what needed to be replaced, and what didn't. Surprisingly (well, surprisingly to me anyway, maybe this is normal), not all of them agreed on what did and did not need to be fixed. At this point in time, I could not afford to have everything replaced (one contractor told me I should have the whole thing done), so I decided to do the one section everyone agreed on and one section where I could clearly see rot. The contractor I hired charged $50 and hour and does not like to paint. He told me to save myself some money, I should paint the siding myself. Okay, sure why not. I mean it shouln't be too hard to paint a few pieces of wood, right? I mean I painted a couple of rooms in my house, this wouldn't involve ladders or painters tape or any of that jazz. Famous last words. First of all "a few pieces of wood" turned out to be 34 pieces of wood ranging in length from 8 feet to 16 feet. My parents had said I could paint the wood at their house since they have a garage so if it rained or anything, I had a place to safely keep the wood. So a few weeks ago, I arrived at the 'rents around 11:00am and primed (I discovered hate priming!) until about 4:00 when I left to go get more stain and prime (or is it primer?). The condo association requires a specific kind and color from Sherwin Wiliams so I made myself look somewhat presentable (I was covered in prime) and drove down to SW. They had the prime (primer?), but they only had one gallon left of the stain. However, the salesperson told me the SW at the other end of the city apparently had some so I flew up to the other end of the city as the store was going to be closing at 5 and by this point it was after 4:30, I made it just in time then drove back to the south end of town (where my parents' house is) to continue priming 34 pieces of wood. I did as much as I could outside then moved to the garage so I could use the light of the garage when it got dark out. Including clean up, I was there until after 10:00. Then it was back home to eat (no lunch or dinner for me so far that day so I was hungry, cold, and tired) and try to scrub prime off of me (not so much fun). I was back at my parents at 8:00 the next morning. It is extremely rare that I am up at 8:00 on a Sunday let alone out of my home and at someone else's place that early. Sundays are for sleeping in--at least they used to be...Well, I primed and primed and primed some more and did a little staining and then I ran out of space to put any more wood so I figured I'd call it quits for the day. I called my contractor to tell him that he could not come get the wood the next day like he was hoping to because I still had to stain it all and several more pieces to prime. (I don't know if I'm wicked slow or if he was showing wishful thinking by hoping I'd get it done in two days.) He said he wouldn't be able to come for over a week and that was fine with me as that would mean I could use the following weekend to finish and I could probably do some more painting after work a few days that week. As it was only about 2:00 or 3:00 I figured I'd leave the wood outside to dry and go back around 6/6:30 when it started getting dark and move it into the garage to store it overnight. So I cleaned up and headed home to relax and enjoy spending the last few hours of my weekend not painting--of course I was going to be spending it cleaning so that wasn't completely fun, but whatever. Well, I must have done something bad recently because karma came back to smack me across the face in the form of a phone call from my father who was furious because I'd gotten prime on the driveway and grass. He also wanted his half of the garage back so he'd have a place to put his car so he moved some of my wood. I don't think he realized that the wood was NOT completely dry and you are not supposed to stack wet wood. I'll be the first person to tell you I am a klutz--that may even ben an understatement. It's a miracle I can still do ballet considering how klutzy I am, so while I did not purposely get prime on the driveway or grass I did feel bad about it, but I truly did not do it on purpose. I went back to my parents to try to clean up some of the mess and find a way to store the stacked wood without stacking it, but was only able to find room for a few pieces. Now unless you've been living under a rock for my entire life, you know that I worry way too much about everything. I woke up every single hour that night worrying about this siding. I was convinced the wood was going to be ruined and I was going to have to buy 34 more pieces of wood (well, it probably would have only been 20 as not every piece was stacked). Believe it or not, wood is not cheap. Nor is prime or stain and I would have to buy more of that too. I was more exhausted that Monday than I'd been in a long time. I think the last time I'd slept that badly was during some near all-nighters spent cramming for exams in college and after those I'd at least sleep for a couple of hours and not wake up at least once an hour. I also had nightmares about staining siding that night. In one I was at my parents painting and I spilled it all over the living room and was trying to hide the spill and clean it up before my parents got home. In another one, I was living with people I went to Belize with and I was trying to paint at our new home. And in the third one I was visiting my best friend in the hospital and while I was waiting to see her I was painting the wood in the hospital waiting room and I kept spilling. I kid you not people, I really had these dreams/nightmares. What would the dream book say about that? I looked like hell the next day at work and as with most jobs mine is not one you want to do when you're exhausted. I will say it was a great form of weight loss though because I was so stressed that I could not eat. Actually, now that I think of it, that's kind of strange because sometimes when I'm stressed, I overeat. Weird, anyway...Somehow I made it through the day without falling asleep and even managed to make it through tutoring. Then it was back to the parentals to attempt to prime and paint some more. I was able to stain a few pieces of the unstacked wood. My mother calmed me down and assured me that I would get the wood painted and eventually the project would be done and she was convinced the wood was not completely ruined. Now before you think I'm completely crazy for stressing about this like a madwoman, remember I was exhausted and broke and not in the best state of mind so don't commit me to the men in the white coats yet. Dear ol' Mom also thought we could store some of the wood in the basement so I'd be able to have space to get to the rest of the wood. See I now had half a garage so that was fine to do about 9 pieces of wood at a time (I later got creative and was able to do 18), but once those pieces were done they needed to completely dry before I could stack them any more and move them. When I had the whole garage I could paint on one side and have the painted pieces dry on the other side. Once the prime was on, the painting wasn't so bad, but priming was tricky because the wood just ate it up. Also, because of the type of wood, my contractor told me not to use a roller because the way the wood is a roller would get stuck in it so I completely underestimated how long the project would take because I thought I'd just slap on some prime and be done, little did I know, I'd be working hard to get the prime on and though the windy weather was great for drying it also caused some leaves to blow into the prime so I spent some time picking leaves, grass, etc. off the wood. (I'm pretty sure I missed a few pieces and they will forever be on my siding along with a few pieces of my hair.) I primed and painted until just after dark on Monday. I checked some of the stacked wood and while it was clear I would have to restain it, it didn't look like the wood was useless (thank goodness!). I finally went home to change, eat, etc. and thankfully, managed to get a decent night's sleep. Then it was back to the parents' on Tuesday after a day or working and a meeting to prime and stain some more wood. I did the same thing on Wednesday only by Wednesday a couple of pieces of wood now seemed dry so Mom and I moved them into the basement so I could get to more wood. I'd also found some old paint cans and was able to put a piece of wood on two paint cans (one at each end) under the wood that was currently being painted so I could have 18 pieces of wood going at once again. (one row on benches/sawhorses, and one row under them on paint cans)This also meant I had to lie on the garage floor a few times to paint some of the wood, but it got done. I still don't find any of this funny though someday maybe I will, but I think if you had a video camera and had seen me lying on the floor trying to paint wood or had seen some of the strange positions I sat, stood, squatted in, you would have had a good laugh (those ballet moves came in handy). That Wednesday was also the day I finally finished priming and at last I finally saw a teeny tiny glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, which you can hear all about in the next blog if you're still reading. :)

Words I'll Read, Mouth, Listen to, and Apparently Sing, but Not Say

I have two new favorite songs, actually, I don't think either of them are that new, but I've been MIA in blogland lately. So one of them is the "King of Anything," which I love, I think partially because it's one of those songs you want to sing along to and think ha, in your face to those people who have annoyed you in life. Of course I could never really stand up to anyone who's driven me crazy in life because I'm too chicken, but it's nice to pretend and it's fun to sing along to that song--as long as I'm alone. I can't carry a tune to save my life so I sing in the car or when I'm alone. The only time I don't sing along is when I have to sing a song for the kiddos at work or if I'm at a bar and everyone is singing along to the music. Okay, I digress so the other song I like, I don't remember the name of it, but it uses the F word like 100 times. I,t's SO unlike me to be all about a song with swears. I don't swear terribly often. In fact once in 9th grade after a particularly bad geometry test, I whispered the words to a word that starts with sh and rhymes with kit and my friends were all OMG, you don't swear, I can't believe you just (almost) said that, blah blah blah. Now it's still more likely than not that I'll make it through a day without swearing, but it's not quite as unheard of for me to do it now. Getting stressed out will cause you to say some weird things in anger. Although, truth be told, I more mumble it, than anything else. When I dressed up as a gangster for Halloween, I was all about talking like one, yo, yo, yo, what's up mother--BLEEP, but I tried and I could do the yo yo yo, but I kept whispering the "bad words." Can we just reflect on the fact that I am so NON-GANGSTA. My poor mother was shocked when she saw the pic on facebook. So anyway, I don't think less of you if you swear, I mean if you come up to me and start calling me a bunch of words that you can't say on network tv, I may cry, but truth be told, I might cry if you call me a poopoo head or some other silly not nice thing because I cry at everything. And there was some movie I watched last year, I think it was something by Quentin Tarantino (too lazy to look up correct spelling of his name) and I turned to the person I was watching it with and said, that is so annoying, no one says the f word that many times, like every other word out of his mouth. I totally overuse the word like and I don't say it as much as this movie uses the f word. I've seen plenty of movies with swears in them, movies, I liked, but seriously you can say a word, f word or anything else, too many times. So now that I've gone on this long pointless tangent, let's get back to the song...the song repeats the line, it's not your fault, but mine, I really f---ed it up this time, didn't I my dear. No idea why, but I love this song. I heard it at trivia the other night. Yes, trivia, two of my friends who I have been friends with since jr. high (one) and high school (the other one) go to trivia at this local Irish pub every other week (they go every week, but I'm on the every other plan right now). One of my friend's co-workers often goes too. It's so much fun, even if we're not that good, and by we, I mean me, because they are pretty good. I've gotten us a few points, but the useless information I know hasn't come up in trivia too many times yet. So yeah, in between each ? they play one song so you have time to answer and that was the song. Then a week later, I heard it on the radio (obviously with the f word bleeped out). So yeah, that's my story. So you might not hear me swearing, but you might hear me mouthing the words to swears in songs. I'm so weird!