Thursday, February 23, 2012

Only People

Well, it turns out people are only people. I shouldn't have thought any more or any less of them. People generally aren't serial killers nor are they heroic fathers. People just fall through on their word, string you along and fail to produce. After how many conversations, Tim never showed, even after all his enthusiasm. So I moved onto second on the list Mike. Same enthusiasm... same outcome. No show. I finally got rid of my dresser to the 3rd on the list Jessie, who showed... well, sorta... sent her dad to come pick it up.

There you have it, people are just people after all - 2/3 unreliable, 1/3 who will make someone else do it for them.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I am loved and I love.... and that is what's most important.

Monday, February 13, 2012

The Greater Good

Why is it so hard to believe in the greater good of people? Stranger Danger. It's so ingrained in our upbringing that anyone unfamiliar becomes suspect. Like today, here I am trying to beg, borrow, steal trucks and muscle from my friends to bring this ugly & used bedroom furniture to Goodwill. I don't have the heart to break it up for trash, because even if it's ugly... there might be someone that needs it. Someone who doesn't always get to choose how pretty their dresser gets to be. And then I realized... why? Why ask my friends for their time, their trucks and their muscle for a bunch of ugly furniture? Is this really what I want to use up my favors for (I really do believe we are allotted favors, not to take advantage of)....?

Craigslist!

Duh! Put it up for free and the next person that needs it can do the work of getting it out of my place. Seems like a fair trade, a little effort for a life of good use. But it isn't long before the Stranger Danger sits in. Maybe it's because I'm a petite female in an apartment all alone... or maybe it's because my mother says "They'll come to your HOUSE?!" Either way, there's no way around the fact that in the back of my head I am thinking about all the things that could go wrong giving my address out and inviting someone into my home, even for the briefest of moments.

But I want to believe in the greater good of people. I call the people that inquired first, Tim or Holli they say to ask for. I call, it's Tim. Tim's got a bit of a slur to his speech, not a drunk slur, more of a drawl. How do I say this... Tim seems like a bit of a mess. He tells me to call him back in a couple of hours. I do. Tim's at the mechanic now because he got a flat tire and won't be able to pick up the dresser until tonight. Tim seems like the kind of guy that can't catch a break.  Maybe even the type of guy that bad luck surrounds. The more I talk to Tim, the harder it is to hold onto the greater good. Finally he tells me, it's for his kid who has never had a dresser before, all his clothes in boxes on the floor. I want to believe that. I want to believe. I hope that it is a lucky find for his family and it helps them some. But, I have to admit that deep down inside of me, Tim makes me nervous. So we left our conversation with the fact that I may or may not be around tonight and will leave the dresser on the landing outside of my place for him to pick up.

I hope I'm wrong about Tim. I want to be embarrassed by even thinking these thoughts. I hope that our exchange is nothing more than me trying to offer a small amount of help to someone...and, them, them getting that ugly furniture out of my life forever....

Sunday, February 12, 2012

REDO ODER

I wonder how much of my sudden burst of productivity has to do with the freed up time of no facebook? Or maybe it's just that I've had so much time on and off work these last few months, that I'm suddenly wanting to do something big and consuming with it. Either way, my free time lately has been put to good use. Well, maybe selective good use. I can't pretend I don't have dirty dishes in the sink or that my christmas decorations are put away. Cause both certainly exist. Instead, my art supplies continuously rotate through use and one dry paint brush launched me into an entire bedroom makeover.

My bedroom never really felt like me and hey, I got time. So a random Tuesday night I said... Let's do this. By 'let's' I mean me, myself and I. I will admit to going about this pretty impulsively. But I tend to work better that way or else I'll stew.


First stop was MOA looking for new curtains. I had my same red drapes since I moved here. I've always had good luck with clearance drapes at Urban Outfitters, if you can believe it. I head there. The MOA store lacks luster in the home department and I end up finding one clearance orange/cream drape. Why I would think it was a good idea to buy one, doesn't even make sense to me, but I bought it in faith for some reason. That I knew it would fit. Or that I would make it fit just because I liked the one drape. I stop at Marshall's to find cheap sets of drapes, sets meaning two, and wavered in debate about a tan pair and a white pair. I would always go with tan. But I went with white for some reason. No reason really. I'll just buy and return if this doesn't work out somehow. No direction. No vision. No anticipated outcome. Just grabbing and trusting.


I stop at Home Depot on the way back, walk up to the wall of paint. Pick up one sample card and hand it the mixologist. Yep, that's what he is. Ok, I guess I'm painting my room pale orange, idea coming from the single Urban Outfitter drape. What I realize on the rest of my drive home is that I was sitting next to a can of paint that was going to make my room look like a creamsicle. The irony is, I really don't like creamsicles. Actually, I hate creamsicles.


I paint it creamsicle anyway and stay up to 3am to finish one night. What else can I do to this popsicle stand??? I've never had a dresser that I've liked and have never had a real bed. Ok, those. And I'll put an arbitrary budget of $500 just to stop myself from too much damage.

I find a cheap bed that I wholeheartedly know is cheap but I think I'll like it anyway. Anything has got to better than a bed on wheels that moves itself in my sleep. Cheap, but still a huge chunk (I originally typed junk here, Freudian slip!) of my budget and I'm left with about $100 to find a new dresser if that's still my goal. I check a few consignment shops and end up finding a beautifully shaped gem at an antique store not far from my house. $80 and it'll need a new coat of paint. I got time.... what I didn't have was truck or muscle to bring the thing home. I found a truck, but no muscle and decided I was scrappy enough to bring this beast of a dresser home myself. I was sort of wrong. Got it off the truck and into the street. Then I stood in the street, wondering how in the world I was going to get it upstairs. I made it up with the kindness of a stranger, I asked and he said he was about to offer anyway because of the look on my face. He helped me upstairs and into my apartment without even killing me. What a nice guy. He did his deed for the day. And then it was time for paint....


I thought I would have gone for a browner tone, but back at Home Depot the samples just kept pulling me redder and redder. I bought the color unsure of myself yet again, but willing to give it a shot. I think it turned out smashingly.

Anyway... blah blah blah and I I I. Here's my finished in $500 & two weeks new bedroom.


Well, finished until I decide to spend even more money on it....