I can't believe what I've done.

Today I did something that I promised myself I would never do: I bought boxes.

I. bought. boxes.

Now, I buy a lot of boxes for shipping out Bag Lunch orders. That is not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about purchasing boxes for the sole purpose of carting one's own stuff from one place to another.

I have moved several times over the years and have never once bought moving boxes. I find it to be a stupid notion: purchasing moving boxes. Moving boxes aren't purchased. They are aquired. You find emtpy boxes around your home. Or friends give you empty appliance boxes that they haven't gotten around to tossing out yet. They are never bought.

Moving boxes should have things like "Maytag" and "Fridgedaire" emblazoned on the side in slightly worn off ink. Moving boxes should have to be reinforced with lots of packing tape, because they are old and have been used before.

My moving boxes say "Staples Large" on the side and need no reinforcement.

I am so ashamed.

The Day is Drawing Near

I am officially moving into Suburbia on July 30th. It's official because I've rented a big ol' truck for that day and the deposit is non-refundable.

I've got flooring tiles that aren't going to be delivered until thursday, and I'll be installing them on Saturday. This is cutting it close, but there's nothing I can do about it. It'll be nice to finally move into the house, as I've been spending countless hours working on things in it over the last 2 months.

My cat will be moving in on August 1st. I want things to be sort of settled and unpacked a bit before he moves in, that way he'll recognize things around the new place and possibly feel a bit at home right away. The last time I moved apartments he freaked out and hid under bed covers for 3 days. I had to bring food and water to him, for fear that he would starve to death under my bedspread. I want to make this move as less stressful for him as possible.

And yes, I realize that the last paragraph makes me sound like a loony cat lady.

Some unrelated rambling...

So, I'm feeling better...not great, but better. I'm taking it easy this week, because I've set a move in date for July 30th, and I want to be fully recovered by then. Moving House is the bane of my existence as it is, and I can only imagine how awful moving will be if I still feel under the weather.

I've been taking a car-load of junk to my house everyday, so that by July 30th, I'll only be moving furniture.
This is the plan anyway... It's amazing how much stuff I've accumulated over the years. I have a problem where I like to collect things. Things like interesting packaging, amusing images clipped from magazines, clothing that doesn't even fit anymore....
I'm hoping there is some sort of support group somewhere for pack-rats.

And now for something different...

The Genius behind www.needled.com has a great article posted on www.bmezine.com. You can read the article by visiting here... http://www.bmezine.com/news/edit/A60719/artwhati.html

In addition to being really well-written and amusing, I also find the article to be really accurate in the experiences it documents. Although I've noticed that I get less mouth-agape stares from people gawking at my artwork in recent years than I have, say five years ago, I still encounter similar situations to those mentioned in the article.

Uh, I'm rambling, but cut me some slack..
I'm under the weather.

That "Apple a day..." thing? It's a lie.

Bleh.

I am WAY behind on my "To Do" list for house-related things. I was hoping to be finished with all the painting by now, but I'm not. This is delaying everything. I can't actually move in until the kitchen floor is installed... and I can't install the kitchen floor until I finish painting.

And this is because I am sick. Really sick. This morning I coughed so hard that I threw up. IN MY HAND.
Everyday I wake up thinking.. "yeah.. I'm cured." Then I hack something up and that thought flies right out the window, along with some phlegm.

I can't really do much except for sit around overanalyzing symptoms. I hate that I can't do something because of some sickness-induced limitation. And I've been told not to do anything for fear of a relapse. This scares me. I don't want to relapse and be sick for twice as long. I feel lazy for just lying around, yet scared to over-exert myself and relapse.

And now for a purely infantile, childish complaint... My parents are in Bermuda, so I can't even call them to whine about how crappy I feel. Nothing helps recovery quite like calling your Mother and whining for hours about being ill. Because they have to listen. Because they are related to you and have to provide sympathy, whether genuine or not.

The other scary thing is that my cat has been sleeping next to me at night. He hardly does this during the Summer.
I'm pretty sure the only reason he's doing this is so that if I perish during the night, he'll be right there to immediatly start gnawing my face off.

He's that sort of feline.

cough cough.

Yep..Did that myself. That too. And that.

So, I'm doing all the stuff to my house myself, with help from family. Whenever this comes up in conversation, I always hear, "It must feel so satisfying to know that you're doing all of it yourself. Just think, when you're all done, you can look around your house and know that you acomplished all that yourself. It's going to be so satisfying and gratifying for you."

At the beginning of this house-rehab, I agreed with these people. It is sort of neat to be able to say, "Yeah, I painted that. Yeah, I ripped that paneling down. Yeah, that's when I sprained my wrist, installing that blah blah blah..."

Now I think it's crap. People say that crap to you to make you feel okay about not being able to afford contractors.

I now know why people hire people to do things. Because taking on this much is insane. I'm tired all the time and I keep finding paint in my hair. Wah. When is the last time you heard of some wealthy person throwing their back out painting a ceiling? Yeah, never.. Because they pay people to do these sorts of things.

Granted, my Father is taking on a lot of the work requiring actual knowledge of house construction, but I'm still doing a lot of the painting and sanding and non-potentially damaging to the structure type things.

It's all worth it, because I'm going to feel very satisfied when I'm done.

Apparently.

Drip

This weekend I hope to get a majority of what's left to do, finished.

On the "To Do" list for Saturday...

Paint a second coat of white on the kitchen walls and trim

Paint the color brick pattern on the brick wall in the kitchen (turquoise and black)

Paint the weird ceiling drop thing in the kitchen (turquoise)

Second coat of paint on the bottom trim in the bedroom (satisfyingly bright pink)

Paint the arms of the ceiling fan in the kitchen (turquoise)

Eat something (hey, all this painting is going to make me hungry)

Move some of my stuff into the newly floored office
(My parents installed a new floor in my office while I was at work..I love them)

Hopefully I can get all this done.

What the paint?

I'm painted all the walls in my house with high gloss paint. Everytime I mention this, someone says, "Oh dear, No.. You aren't supposed to do that. High-gloss is only for trim. Semi-gloss is for walls. Why would you do that?"

Other select responses to my apparent paint blunder:

"High-gloss on walls? That's interesting." (with "interesting" said in a tone of slight horror.)

"You'll need two coats on everything. Why are you using high-gloss, anyway?"

'Are you crazy?"

I don't understand what the big deal is. Who made these paint rules? Who cares that I'll need two coats? I'd probably need to apply two coats anyway, the colors I'm using are so bright.

Throughout my entire life I've been told I don't quite follow the crowd.
Apparently, this also applies to my choice in paint.

Doesn't matter... I'll be living happily in my double-coated, shiny house.