Penovations,

So here we go. In the end of this tale, my brother arrived and didn't really praise the bathroom, but I got to shower, and mom and i continue to be awesome together. Oh and projects and my family work unless you're acting as a rogue agent like my brother who woke up and decided to fuck with my beautiful boston ivy. Makes me so mad. Danica reminds me I need to love him but he totally slashed God's art and mangled it and it won't be another year until its right again. Despite all the weeds he pulled, i should've known waking up to a shovel grating against asphault was a harbinger of doom. It was my fault i didn't bolt out of bed. I'm so going to bed early. Me needs a nap.

Anyway at the beginning of this tale we kept the original 1948 vanity. And took away all of these awesome layers of paint. Mom did the most work with the toxic fabulous goo. go mom!

here's dad littering his cigarette butts in the garden of eden. In somewhat a compassionate note he is a stress basket and did have a lot to do in a short amount of time including coordinating electrical, plumbing, dryer repair, drywall, carpentry, a car show and registering his vehicle and bathing it, and mom. The workers were: Salvador, Raul, Jose, and Alejandro. Oh, and me, lets not forget, cuz i'm awesome. I powerwashed the patio, polished things, dusted, vacuumed, and tidy-d. Cigarette butts are litter though guys, don't deny. I'm thinking a soft very light blue for the bathroom. I can't decide the color of the vanity yet but i painted the insides a rad shade of cranberry. and this is my dream tile which we must save up for. i think it goes with both an earthy yet contemporary feel? i want it to cover the vanity and the floor and small white subway tiles as the backsplash and in the shower.
and lo and behold like magic, primer works wonders! though in the right angle the spackle looked like puffy white clouds in the bright sky. and then dad got all obsessed with making sure the sheeting protected the permabase whatever until we tile and that took forever and then something was leaking after everyone left and the door wouldn't go back on right- so we don't have to yell 'virtual door' anymore- and can just shut it like normal people even if there isn't a knob on the door. but one last group effort...also i'm super proud of mom buying brushed nickle and those awesome round bulbs and i picked out the curved shower bar which rocks! and pushed for the tile being elevated past the window which seriously helps the bathroom with verticality and looking not so claustraphobic.

look at that beautiful white unblemished wall! the sound of the toilet is even different!

G O U S !

next up: crack next to door and vanity, floor, tile, vanity, new door

(just to mark how long it might take)

and

wish list: new window, new shower fixture, and onward to the kitchen.

Pen-

My question is to shower at the gym tomorrow or wait till friday. I'd say tomorrow I think. Cuz hopefully by Friday the plastic sheeting will be up and we can shower all we want, especially since mom "coincidentally" decided to pump the septic tank, at least 5 years overdue, coinciding to the brother's visit. Though apparently just now, mom has corrected me by saying just 5 years ago we pumped it. So maybe then its just 3 years overdue. I can't decide. Either way though a septic tank makes me feel green and earth conscious it stresses me out like taking care of a car. But worse. One that is always making you aware of itself by your actions. You'd be amazed at what not to put down the sink, let alone encroaching shrubs and trees. And then there's the shiny new shopvac my dad bought today bcs his other one died and I'm thinking that better not be my tiles going up in sucking hot air. *sigh. Cuz you know i'm obsessed now with getting exactly the tiles I want. Dangit. But otherwise things are progressing: vanity reinstalled and given tlc and lifted up a helpful 2", concrete stuff up in the shower, another coat of spackle applied- next its the fixtures, primer the walls and we're good for the visit, besides dusting, and sweeping the floor. And that whole, where exactly are people sleeping?

ANyway, I feel slightly scattered. I have lists, and things but really its like I can't focus on anything until after the brother. Like exercise and re-doing a resume as if i were someone else? I know you have no idea what i mean. But I'll totally talk about it more in the next blog. Right now I'm watching a nova special on macchu picchu and i'm a tad distracted. And tired from doing not so much, but just enough? It was a waiting around kind of day, a few garden pots, some clean up work, some painting, some hole digging before the sun went down and that was it.

more soon,
m.

Arizona in my Mind

I was going to hold off until I got a better scan of it but this will have to do for now. I love this photo. It is currently my most favoritist photo of right this moment. And it's even better cuz i'm in it. There are surprisingly not many photos of my brother and I together and even less where we are so epically posed. I found it while I was going through a trunk full of photos from 1977 onward, that my mom has NEVER put in albums, and is only because of me that they are now centrally located and NOT dispersed thru the house in various drawers, stacks, dusty boxes and bundles. If you are this person, stop immediately. Either honor your memories or stop the pretense. Digital files are even worse because who ever looks at those and are they organized by year and month and outing?!. Sure it's cute and like loose, devil may care, when you're in your 20's but not unlike hanging on to vesitages of youth into your 40's and 50's it's seriously just irritating. Okay, I'm cranky. It took me 2 years to organize my grandmothers photos and she had over 20ALBUMS. (aka not thrown in a box disorganized)... So in my last organizational fit (they occur very often) I began to go thru the photos because why not start now opposed to when I'm medicated and single and old and my mom isn't there anymore. You don't need photos of car shows or flower shows or faded zoo photos. Is all I'm saying.

It's beginning to effect my own photo efforts as now I am slowly behind- I can see it happening to me. I know I'm not immune. And I appreciate that my family loves to take pictures and I also take pictures of zoo animals and flowers and sunsets and trees and my cats- I can't stop myself. So maybe this post is a word of warning to me. But also an encouragement. There is after all a story you're creating. Photos are not idle. They're interpreted. They radiate impressions, and eras and class and disposition and you can only hope that when you die somebody might look on an album or a particular photo as something like personal and historical archeology- something that makes you laugh or cry or any myriad of human emotions I haven't the inclination to describe.