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The Commandant 2002-08-31 I don't know where to start chronicling my day today. Not that anything amazing or exciting happened; it's just been a long day so far and I'm tired and my right wrist hurts like a mutha. We got up a little after 7:00 this morning and put clothes and shoes and Francisco made coffee and we put it in our travel mugs and left the house. We went to the gun range, where they were having a work day. Really it was a work day lasting 3 1/2 hours--8:00 to 11:30 . Boy stayed home, in bed, which is becoming his natural habitat. As we were driving into the range, there was a sign up, red with white letters, that said "NO SHOOTING". This is not a part of the story, but I was thinkiing I'd like to get a sign like that for my office at work. It was raining this morning and we didn't know what to expect, work-wise, and we weren't disappointed to find out that our work assignments involved painting. I was assigned to the women's bathroom (the sign on the door says "Setters". The sign on the men's bathroom door says "Pointers". This makes me want to choke someone.), and Francisco was assigned to a portion of wall in the clubhouse. Francisco's assignment went about as well as mine, but I'm only going to talk about mine, because if he wants to talk about his he should get his own damn diary. A woman named Patty was running the show, and basically she was doing a tiny bit of helping in the women's bathroom but mainly bossing other people. Right away I figured out that the women's bathroom was a hell assignment, because two walls were constructed with very rough cinder blocks, and they'd been painted blue but now Patty wanted everything to be white. I painted the ceiling first (I felt the Trading Spaces crew would approve) and started on one of the cinder block walls. Patty was at that point painting some trim in there, and I was working hard with the roller, but after awhile Patty became critical. She wanted to know why the blue was still showing through, and couldn't I go over it again. I explained I'd been over it 3 times already, and that the roughness of the surface was the problem. I stated that with only one coat, of white over blue, some blue would show through. I then went out and got a cup of coffee and bitched to Francisco. After a minute, I noticed Patty in the bathroom, working the roller. Putting my coffee down, I charged to the bathroom and co-opted her paintbrush and paint and started on the trim. I was very pleased by this turn of events and silently vowed to paint the whole bathroom with the brush if it would force that bitch Patty to use the roller. Patty was now, in my mind, The Commandant. She said something to the effect that it was very hard to make the paint cover the cinder blocks, and then she left. She got some guys to come in and help and in about another hour the boys and I had finished. It looked like shit, but there was just no way to make one coat of paint cover that hideous blue. I had a muffin and talked with some annoying men for awhile (they were annoying because they were talking politics and they are very conservative) and then helped some guys start the second coat of paint in the men's bathroom. Finally, thank god, it was 11:30, and Francisco and I said goodbye, telling old Patty that our childcare was running out (which was basically a lie, but we didn't want to leave room for anyone to ask us to stay longer), and jetted home. We showered, had lunch, hung out at home for awhile, and went to the mall. It was a misery. It is a partially outdoor mall, and it was still raining so we got soaked before we got to the Mallmall part. On the plus side, we think we've finally found a new dining table, at Pottery Barn. It is lovely and will be a perfect replacement for the one we have now, which is a nice table but only good for about 4 people to sit at. It is a square that folds out to a rectangle, but the legs don't move so if more than one person sits on a long side, someone has to straddle a leg. This is not good, hence the search for a replacement. We did not buy the table, but we'll probably do that soon, unless we see one we like more. That's about all that happened today, but I'm tired from being wet and chilly most of the day, and the wrist and hands hurt from painting, and I'm very glad to be home. I'm going to put on pajamas and start some laundry and do some minor cleaning and then make risotto for dinner. I think that will be just the thing. But before I go, I want to tell something I forgot to tell before; it's from when we were at the framing counter at Michael's Crafts last weekend. We were waiting in line and we heard a couple guys in the back room laughing, and then we heard glass breaking and more laughing. Then the following: [SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH!] [Laughing] [SMASH! SMASH SMASH SMASH!!] [Raucous laughing, some inaudible talking] [SMASH SMASH SMASH!!] Then, hearing us and a few other people snickering outside, the guys in the back began playing to the audience. [SMASH! SMASH!] ["it's still good! It's still good!] [SMASH SMASH SMASH!!] ["It's still good! We can save it"] They were yellling other stuff too and everyone was laughing hysterically now, and it was just such a pleasant moment with strangers. Thank you, Michael's framing slackers--you brought us all together for a few minutes. I could not love you more. Going to do the pajamas now. Love,
come over some time & see me - 2011-02-25 |
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