Make Mine Mike

I can't get anything done lately. Posts about storytelling, more SCUBA diving photos, dinner w/Gooch, etc... can't concentrate long enough to work on 'em. Maybe because my apartment is still in flux.

During Thanksgiving, my family came over and decided that my place was really nice... but needed to be fixed up. Everyone made suggestions, but most of the work was done by my cousin and her girlfriend. In an hour, they completely rearranged the entire living room. Lesbian eye for the straight guy.

Then my uncle said I should get rid of my desk; he'd build me a new one, with extra desktop space, and shelves overhead to store all my tchochkes. I threw up my hands -- whatever, dude. Next thing I know, we're driving back from Home Depot in the pouring rain, I'm drenched and freezing, running the A/C to keep the car from fogging up, hunched over the windshield to see out the front, plywood and oak boards sticking out the trunk. I thought the old man was crazy, playing carpenter in my crib, but it came out kinda cool.

Finally, the girls offered to stay an extra day and paint the entire apartment. I told them I needed to focus on getting a new car. So they came back a few weeks ago and slathered the place in two coats in less than two days. I was a mere consultant in this entire make-over operation, only occasionally putting my foot down: "No, we can't put the bed against that wall. Why? 'Cause it's... well, it's not feng shui, howzat?!" and "I'd rather not do the living room 'accent wall' in brown. You say it's chocolate, I say it's shit." We went with dark teal green-blue in the living room, grayish blue in the bedroom, clay-red in the bathroom, and an "oatmeal" color on the non-accent walls.

When it was all done, my place reeked of fumes, I was exhausted, but the pad looked much better. I took some photos on a disposable camera, but the only ones that came out decent were of my desk area. A few notes: That's Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters in the corner, my desk is never that neat, I hate that stupid Imac -- I do more writing on my Dell laptop or at work, and you can probably spot some of the distracting items I've listed here.

Hopefully, I'll get to those other posts soon. Next on my list of things to do: Get a digicam. Pretty obvious why.

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