The voice, dear Goddess THE VOICE!

I absolutely LOATHE Facebook.

I only signed up because my coven sisters LIVE ON IT and yadda yadda. So I've had a total of like um, 4 friends? Well eventually my niece decided to add me as a friend, so I was up to a whopping 5.

Anywho, a very nice person who I know and chit chat back and forth with in the Sims community is now a friend on FB. Well hell, since I was opening things up here, I sent Kimmie a friend request. Now this is only because she has asked me like a gajillion times why I wasn't on her friends list. (Um, cuz I talk to you IN PERSON like EVERY DAY so WTF?) Kimmie is the one who dragged me onto MySpace years ago. Sheesh the things we do for friends..

WELL HELL SINCE WE'RE OPENING ALL UP AND SHIT I now have 4 fucking photo albums on there too. I spent more time on FB today than I have in the year I've had it.

So Kimmie calls me and says "WTF? Your FB page like BLEW UP n' shit today". Really? You think?

Then to make things even weirder, I get an email out of the blue from one of the vendors at work asking me how I was doing and that he wanted to send me a FB invite but didn't want to freak me out or get me in trouble at work. So what the hell, why not? Sheesh.

(He doesn't realize yet that my FB is freak central and NSFW, but that's another story.)


The fun doesn't stop there. Oh my no. So let's move on to the title of this post. SJ over there on I, Asshole has a podcast with her friend Egg. So I skip on over to listen to it.

FYCL..SJ SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE ME

Now let me explain what I mean here. You know how your voice sounds in your head when you're speaking? And you know how your ACTUAL voice sounds if you hear a recording of it? Yeah, she has that actual voice.

Same intonation, same level, same inflection - almost the same accent. Now I'm very sensitive to this because I dislike my actual speaking voice. It doesn't sound like I think it should or people expect it to. In college I was told it was IDEAL for on-air work and I should go that route instead of production. I considered taking voice classes to soften the sharp edges to it. (Does that make sense? It's a very crisp voice. Very clear.)

Ok I'll be honest here, it's a 100% white girl voice. I can't count the number of times people have been SHOCKED to meet me after talking on the phone and finding out I'm black. Even ebonics sounds retarded coming out of my mouth because of my voice. I have to work hard to sound ghetto. Yeah, I'm very conscious of what my voice sounds like.

So I'm sitting here listening to MY VOICE (I'm older than SJ so I had it FIRST DAMMIT) and you know what? It's not bad on her. I guess that means it's not bad on me either. I'll have to keep listening to her. Maybe I'll learn to love OUR voice after all :)

What the HELL was I thinking?

I am SO TIRED of painting I could scream. I believe doing the trim is more time consuming than just doing the walls. Really the only thing keeping me going is how nice it looks when each section get's completed.

While I lay on the floor doing the baseboards Miss Pooh thinks I'm there for her personal amusement. Silly kitteh. I did find out that the cats did NOT like the smell of wet paint around their litter closet. We had a couple accidents because of that. Thank goodness the carpet gets cleaned next week.

Speaking of which, I still haven't gotten my room as organized as it should be. Now I'm going to have to scramble to finish getting all the "piles" put away or thrown away. I've also got to call and find out what they will charge to clean the two area rugs. Otherwise I'm going to have to throw them out as they're dirtier than the carpet they cover.

Of course now that the walls are done, I need to clean the mini blinds. Sigh. I did discover that taking them down and washing them in the bathtub works wonders. Then I hang them out on the porch to dry and they're good as new.

I'm hoping I'll have just enough white paint left to do the kitchen. THAT will be a bitch but there is less wall space in there and it could definitely use some freshening up. It also sticks out like a sore thumb now that the diningroom is done.

Goddess knows I didn't realize how much work all this was going to be. I also didn't realize it was going to drag on for 3 weeks. Well that's really my fault, and I'm so happy with the results I need to just shut the hell up. Too bad I'm neither ready or interested in getting new furniture. I hate all the stuff in the livingroom and diningroom but until the boys are gone I'm not going to bother. They've ruined what was already worn out and I will be damned if they'll fuck up new stuff. I had to sit out on the sofa over the weekend and was tempted to put them out NAO. LCpl Tyler thinks it's his personal sofa and it smells like him. YUK. The springs are completely gone, I have nfc how it still manages to hold its shape.

(If) After all this redecorating gets done, the Butterfly has to come over and see if the ceiling fan I bought can be installed. I'm also going to see if he can rehang the louvre doors to LCpl Tyler's room. I hate for it to sound like a "honey do" list, but those are 2 things I really need his help with. Fortunately he's agreed, so yay me.

Well back to the neverending paint job.

Scavenging 101

When I was growing up, my mother and grandmother were always scavenging for stuff. My mother managed to get a truckload full of bricks from a building that was being demolished and used them to pave the back patio. My grandmother used to walk around her neighborhood (or wherever she was) and take clippings from various plants and then grow them in her yard.

As evidenced by the recent free paint dealie I seem to have the same gene.

Today I double-dipped in the free paint fountain. The gentleman who gave me the original 10 gal of paint no longer works for the company. So I've chatted now and then with the guy who replaced him. I threw out the suggestion that should he find he has any left over white semi gloss paint I'd love to have it to do my baseboards.

I am now the proud bearer of a gallon of free white paint. Redecorated condo courtesy of Sparkle Painting.

Scavenging is not that difficult to do. In fact, all you really have to do is open your mouth and ask for something. A person will either say yes, no or give some nominal price. I avoid the nominal price people, I want free shit. Especially shit that no one else is going to be using or will be throwing away. Recycling if you will.

I got a damn near new vacuum that way. One of the dudes at work brought his old one in to use at the office. He had bought one of those fancy schmancy Dyson ones and they didn't need two. Well as I had already bought a new vacuum for the office I appropriated his. Works like a dream. Also does a better job at getting up the cat hair than my old one.

Now if I can just scavenge up a damn near new sofa I'll be happy.

While digging through the remnants of prescriptions past

Of course I've done jack-all with my room or the house since painting. LCpl Tyler and his buddie are scheduled to paint the rest this weekend. It's only costing me 2 tix to "G-I Joe". Whatta bargain.

My tooth is back to infection mode. After an entire day of attempting to coordinate a preemptive strike on not being able to eat, I went to the new walk in clinic across the street and got a script for amoxicillin. I'm flush with anger over my whole healthcare issue and I'm gathering my thoughts to post on that another day.

The Butterfly cut out a HUGE swatch of time to devote to me. How many people actually realize how valuable that is in this day and age? We're consumed with so much shit that time is precious. For someone to just stop everything they're doing and give you their time is quite flattering. It's also something only a friend would do and he's that more than anything.

He made me feel pretty - I know I'm not supposed to base my self of steam on what a man thinks of me but I'd be lying if I denied it so there it is. I ran out and got my nails, toes and eyebrows done later. It was a double pick me up and you have to take what you can when you can. Actually I'd put the nails off til I finished painting so I wouldn't ruin them. Feeling all rosy and warm inside just made me drag my ass out to do it.

Some nice convos with some nice people I've only talked to in passing. Common ground, shared outlooks, good stuff. Reminder from the Sims forum I frequent that I have an unfinished sweater to knit. I should do that before the winter so I can wear it. Well when I go back to the doctor and she lets me get the Chantix script (again) to stop smoking (again) I'll pick up the needles. Good to keep my hands busy.

Kimmie's grandfather died and she's not handling it well. She's never had a family member die and it's hard for her. What do you say at times like this? Nothing except I'm sorry and what can I do for you. I remember that when Danny died. Anything else someone says is worthless. Nothing you can say to a loss like that that will help.

So I'll force myself to get my room in order this weekend just like I forced myself to paint it. If I don't drive myself it will never get done. I know what I want, now I have to DO EET.

My birthday is coming up soon. I'm fighting the depression that will inevitably set in as I face getting older and older. Right now I'm not feeling that "you're not getting older, you're getting better" bullshit.

Child labor - it's a LEARNING experience!

Er..let's try this again. Blogger ated my post.

My house is a disaster. I can't begin to describe it.

I got two 5 gallon buckets of paint for free from the painting company next door at work. That was a blessing from the Gods considering a gallon of paint is running $25- $40 nowadays. It's a neutral off white so I knew I could tint it if necessary.

So I went to Lowes and got a can of "fucked up" paint to tint it. I wanted a nice light taupe for my bedroom and managed to mix it up myself. I only spent a little money to get the stuff for a faux suede on one wall. I must say I'm pleased with the results. Instead of the stark white trim, I used the off white and it really softened it up. My room however, is in shambles. This of course prompts me to do some late summer cleaning and culling of crap. I also took the 120 yr old desk I was using as a nightstand and switched it out with the sofa table I was using as a desk. It's smaller, the monitor is up too high, but it gives me more room space. I am trying to adjust. I even ordered additional Goddess tiles from Thalia's site (over there on the right) to finish off one wall. Pics when I get the place in order.

The problem is I'm too old for this kind of stuff.

We've lived here 5 yrs. I took the place "as is" with no fresh paint, no clean carpets. After 5 yrs, 1 dog, 3 cats and 2 kids it's atrocious. We're down to 2 cats and 2 kids but still. Yuk. My light grey carpet is pretty much brown except under the area rugs. Carpet cleaning is budgeted for next month. Professional this time. None of that Rug Doctor shit I did a year and a half ago.

I'm restless. The Butterfly is overwhelmed at work and can't entertain me like I'm used to. It's also a good home improvement lesson for LCpl Tyler before he flys the nest.

Which leads to Sunday. I was so sore I couldn't MOVE. So of course I press-ganged Tyler into painting. He did the foyer and the diningroom and HOLY CRAP BATMAN he did a damn fine job. He in turn press-ganged his friend Dimitri to help him with the second coat. I offered them movie tickets if they'll do the livingroom sometime this week. Sean the Useless refuses to do it. Fucker. As we've only gone through half of one bucket, bathrooms and kitchen are now on the list.

Now if I could only figure out a way to change the craptastic bathroom cabinets...

note to regg: I heard you and I shall make every effort sometime in the near future to make things easier on your eyes :)