Crossroads

I did a lot of thinking about things today. Which is to say, I procrastinated doing some things that needed to be done, but I still did a lot of thinking.

I have a job. It's really just a job. I'm not really happy, but it is flexible and it did get me closer to my family, which was one of my goals. I'm on the verge of having two Master's degrees, which I thought a lot about today. I'm scared that they may be of no use to me whatsoever - especially the second one. My friend in Maryland sent me a link today for job searches for Instructional Design (my second degree), but I'm not optimistic right now.

I did a lot of thinking about what I really want to do with my life. Sure, teaching is important. But, I never really thought about it when I was in college and how much I might want to do something different. I've enjoyed teaching for a number of years, but it has it's downside. I'm not unrealistic or naiive enough to think that another job would be perfect without problems - all jobs have problems. The difference is: are they problems that you can live with, or things that drive you nuts? Right now, some aspects of teaching drive me nuts.

So, back to what I want to do with my life. I have something I want to try, which I'm too scared to put down here. Why? Probably in case I fail. The good news is: I won't have to leave my current job to do it, and my current job will give me flexibility to do it. I will have to wait a few weeks until I can really pursue it - I have one more class to finish and it will be done in two weeks, and I also need my real computer (not the laptop - which belongs to my company) to start this little "project".

Surprisingly, this was something that I thought about doing a very long time ago, when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old - possibly even younger. Now that I think about it, I was younger. I didn't really think about teaching as a career until I was in 8th grade - so I would have been 13 when I thought about that. So, maybe what I wanted to do at a younger age is really what I was meant to do? I'm not sure. How do you know? What determines what you will do in life? Is it predetermined? Or do you just keep jumping from career to career and hope you land in one that you like? It's scary. I think my fear stems more from the possibility of failure. However, I know that I will experience many a rejection if I really try to do this - so, maybe being prepared with that in mind will actually help me somehow? If I know rejection may be imminent, then that old "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" thing will be true for me. We'll see.....

The Transformation & Another reason to love Jedi

My house that I bought is undergoing a slow, but steady transformation. I'm starting to wonder if I have some weird genetic disorder that doesn't allow me to be happy with a house. I did the same thing in Florida. The entire house (which was 500 square feet smaller and NOT a two-story house) was painted in 4 days except for the two bathrooms and master (and that's only because I wasn't sure of the colors I wanted), then we did chair rail on day 5, and hung pictures that night. Then, I did tile later and added to the patio and tiled that as well. Let's not even discuss any changes in the landscaping!

Now, my new house is almost completely painted inside - I only have 2 bathrooms left, some cutting in in the foyer, and I may paint the laundry room and my master closet - I haven't decided yet if it's worth it. Today is officially ONE month since I moved in. Not only have we been painting, but cleaning as we go, and, of course, my house would not be complete without chair rail somewhere - so it's in the living room this time and a small part of the kitchen. The glitch with this house - it's bigger AND the living room is a two-story ceiling. Good LORD was that nerve-wracking - I had to watch my dad (who is almost 70) climb up and down this monster ladder to get it all. Where's my atenolol when I need it?????? (those are my heart meds that I take for irregular heartbeat sometimes).

So, now that the inside is done - I just keep going! The entire outside of my house is being painted today. I was smart enough to take before pics this time. So, as soon as I can get my regular computer up and running so I can download all the pics I've done, I will post both interior and exterior before/afters.

I thought I had strong color tastes - I was NOTHING compared to the people that lived here! Summary of what they did:
Living room/master bed and bath and foyer: the "builder beige" special - which is flat (what were they thinking in the bathroom???) and I swear flat paint just sucks in light and makes it darker. Plus, it was a gray/beige - so the walls looked dirty.
Bedroom 1: GREEN - meadow GREEN and DARK - this was their daughter's room.
Bedroom 2: BLUE - BOY blue - with a large oak tree mural in the corner with two little bears AND wall paper border. Which, we thought there was only one - OH NO.... that would have been too easy. They wallpapered OVER the one they originally put up. Ugh.
Guest bath upstairs: GREEN - see note about bedroom 1 above. Plus a wallpaper border that I finished removing today so I can paint it tomorrow.
Half bath downstairs: BRIGHT yellow - which I know it's a small room - but it's NOT a soft yellow. Soft would have been fine - it's too small of a room for the bright of this color. Plus a wallpaper border AND another "textured" wallpaper that takes up the bottom half. It's just weird. I still have to pull that crap down and I need a scoring tool to do it.
Laundry: "builder beige" - need I say more?
Formal Dining room: Marine blue - okay, so I could have dealt with that (blue is my fav color), but it made the room feel very small - so we changed it - THREE COATS to cover it - ugh.
Kitchen: this was, by far, the worst room in terms of color. They first painted it RED - we found it in some places and it was blood red. The final color was the puke brownish-red - NOT joking. It literally looked like someone threw up on the walls (E would be proud - I used her fav phrase: "It looks like someone threw up in here" - usually used in the context of describing a very messy area).

So, my house is almost done. The flooring is next. Supposedly they are coming in on Monday to start ripping up the baths and kitchen and laundry to start the tile. Once the tile is in, I'm having all the carpet ripped out and putting down BERBER - which is my fav. It wears better and looks cleaner to me. Plus, with two animals, it doesn't hold stains as much as the contractor special carpet.

Now, the "why I love Jedi" part of this post. I have 3 guys and a girl outside painting. My house was "coccooned" with all the windows covered in plastic so they could spray the outside. I had to take Jedi out the front since I can't get to the backyard and he was on leash. They are SCARED to death of him!! So, I am completely comfortable being alone now (my dad was here earlier painting the baseboards in the living room). This is yet another reason why I love having a large black dog that has a fantastic bark :)

Oh, forgot to mention the outside house color. The ENTIRE house was white - siding and trim - with 6 green shutters and a green door. How boring can you get???? There's molding over the two garage doors that you couldn't even see because it was white on white. So, I did the entire exterior walls in a medium brown color - Porter Paints "taupe beige", the trim and downspouts will stay white. But (again, refer to that fact that blue is my fav color) a deep blue (Porter Paint "Independence Blue") for the door, shutters, the attic vent decoration, and the small metal above my bedroom windows and garage that kind of slopes down. So far, it looks FANTASTIC!! They did the door so I could see the blue with the brown - wow! It just pops! Plus, with the white trim on the windows and downspouts, etc - the contrast is going to really stand out! I think they may actually finish today :) My friend E has seen the house too - she's not even going to recognize the outside! It was so plain before. The tree and bushes in the front with the trim and new color really stand out nice now as well. My dad said it looks TONS better from the corner when he left today. No more plain Jane house for me!!