Thursday, July 7, 2011

sorry, no blog tonight... oh wait...

so today . . . there will be no blog. here's why...the move is finally happening. i hope. as you can see, there is still packing to be done. we have spent the last two weeks trying to get everything done in the new house before we moved in, but it has been a nightmare for me! decision after decision after decision. and not making decisions. and changing my decisions... it has not been pretty, people!

the interior painting went well. i only had to have the painters repaint one room. it was the man room. everything else looked exactly like i had pictured it, but the man room was baby boy blue, not the muted turquoise i had in mind. i tried to like it, but i just couldn't. i didn't know how they had gotten the color so very wrong! i went to get more paint chips, chose a new color of blue, went back to the house, put it up on the wall, and guess what? it was the exact same color. i don't know how it could look so different up on the wall, but it sure did. when i told jose' he was going to have to go get another color of paint and paint the room again, he just smiled and said, "no problem!" and so, the painting was completed and the new color looks good. and i only changed my mind once!

i spent several days working on the wood floor that was hidden under the awful carpeting in the master bedroom. i spent most of one saturday just pulling up the tack strips and the staples from the padding--over 1300 inches of tack strips and hundreds of staples. and then i spent the next saturday and sunday afternoons cleaning it, square by square. it was a lot of work and every muscle in my body ached! but when i got done, it looked sooooo good!

last weekend we had new windows installed in all the rooms upstairs. i have never seen windows replaced, but since i was on my hands and knees working on the wood floor, i got to see the process. either it was much simpler than i thought it would be, or those two window installers were just really, really good. either way, it didn't take them long and we had beautiful new windows. although, i learned that i should not watch work in progress. i kept thinking, "oh no! the windows are too small! oh no! the windows aren't level! oh no! i can see that foamy stuff all the way around the window! oh no! these are going to look awful!!" i was feeling a little sick and wishing maybe i had spent the big bucks and just hired home depot. but as it turns out, i am glad i went the cheap route, because they turned out really nice.

we have prairie shutters coming (if i can find a way to get my window sills trimmed down--none of my windowsills are level!) i've scheduled grass for the backyard, and i am currently doing battle with lowe's over carpet installation. (i am mad at them. i will never, ever use them again. but i am madder at home depot's carpet people, and i need carpet NOW, so i don't have a lot of options. if i had taken care of this two weeks ago, i would have had more options. but two weeks ago i was busy making paint decisions and trying to get rid of the leftover furniture the seller's left and degreasing the kitchen--which, btw, i am still doing--and so carpet was not the high priority it should have been...)

i also should have been packing. but rollie had a plan and it seemed so simple. he said to just pack the things i wanted to take, and then after we had all that stuff moved, we would dispose of the stuff we had left. it seemed like a good plan. and i especially liked it, because it didn't sound like it required a lot of actual packing. but it does...

and so, that is where i am right now. packing. this is not the fun part of moving. but it is necessary, so i guess i had better get back to it...

...which is why there will be no blog tonight.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

super store? or nightmare at 10:00 a.m.?

so today . . . i went to a "new" wal-mart super store. i felt like the dumbest rat in the maze...

one of the things i love about wal-mart is that they have just a few different floor plans for their stores. i like this. i like that i can go into a wal-mart in long beach, california or woodburn, oregon or orlando, florida, and i know where things are. usually i do not go into wal-mart to shop--that's what target is for! no, usually i go into wal-mart to buy what i need quickly and get out...

but not today. because today i had the unfortunate "pleasure" of finding myself in a wal-mart super store.

i like the concept of a super store. i like being able to go to one store to get groceries, toiletries, dvds, shoes (ok, not really. i don't buy my shoes at wal-mart. but i like knowing i could, if i wanted to!) plants, and car parts. the problem is, in a super store i can't seem to find anything...

maybe there are also just a few floor plans for the wal-mart super stores, but i don't know them yet. this is only the second super store i have been in! the first one was a couple of years ago when we were in orlando. i couldn't find anything then, either, but since we were on vacation it wasn't such a big deal. i wasn't in a hurry. i didn't really have an agenda. i just went in to see what i could find. today was a completely different story...

today i had a plan. and stuff to do!! i couldn't spend all day exploring and wandering around this new wal-mart!! i just needed a few things--milk bones, toilet paper (for the new house. i noticed the supplies i had already taken over were diminishing...) vinegar (which i had read online would degrease kitchen cabinets. i don't know what those people cooked in that kitchen, but there were some stubborn grease splatters to deal with,) and a spray bottle for the vinegar. i went whipping through the store, tossing my purchases into my basket... well, maybe whipping through the store is a bit of an exaggeration, because the first thing i noticed about this super store was that there wasn't a lot of room between aisles for carts. i prefer to navigate through stores without a shopping cart. but today, even though i was only buying four things, one of those things was toilet paper. and whenever i am forced to buy toilet paper, i buy a LOT of toilet paper, my goal being fewer trips to wal-mart. so i had a cart.

i quickly discovered that today there were a lot of people with carts in wal-mart. i don't know what is the matter with everyone!! didn't they have enough excitement yesterday??? didn't they have company over for bar-be-que or battle the crowds at the park to watch the fireworks or spend the day out in the heat???? why wasn't everyone at home recuperating from the fourth of july?!?!?! clearly, the independence day celebrations weren't celebratory enough!

but i am a big girl. i have lived in the shadow of a metropolis for ten years. i know about crowds. so as i maneuvered at a more moderate pace than normal, through the unfamiliar aisles of the wal-mart super store, i just kept saying to myself, "at least you are not at work today. at least you only need a few things. at least you get to move into a beautiful house in two days..." AAACCCKKKKK!!! TWO DAYS?!?!?! ok, that didn't help. i just needed to get my stuff and get out of there! i had the toilet paper (24 double rolls, thank you very much!) i had milk bones. i headed to where i thought the empty spray bottles would be. but then i detoured through the kitchen section...

(i hear you, wendy. i hear you saying, "why would you even go into the kitchen section? you hate the kitchen. you don't cook. there can't be anything in there that you could possibly need or want!!!" and to that i say, au contraire my friend, because i am moving my stuff into a new kitchen! this opens up all kinds of opportunities for new ways of organizing things--because while i might not like to cook, i do like to organize!)

i started throwing things in my cart. i had a bamboo silverware organizer (good for the environment and HALF the cost of the exact same thing at lowe's!) and then i saw some cool looking black and tan plastic modular drawer dividers (maybe not so good for the environment, but the colors would go perfectly in my new kitchen!) and then there was a RED dish drainer (and before you ask, yes, the new house has a dishwasher, but i find that it is easier to wash the dishes by hand since we mostly use glasses and silverware.) there was shelf paper, because you know, one cannot move into a new residence without installing new shelf paper. and then i started to throw a bamboo corner shelf unit into the cart, when i finally stopped myself. "wait a minute," i said to myself, "what am i doing here! what am i going to do with this cool corner bamboo shelf? just because it is cool, doesn't mean i have to buy it! i probably don't really need any of this stuff. and i have a budget! a budget!! if i buy all this stuff, i am going to have to do without something else! put it back! put it all back, and go get vinegar and a spray bottle! do it now before i have to threaten you with thoughts of no new carpeting!!!"

sometimes i am no fun at all...

so i put all the extra stuff back and went in search of a spray bottle. i thought the logical place to find it would be with the paper goods and cleaning supplies. i had already been back there once to get toilet paper, and i didn't see any spray bottles, but i thought maybe i just hadn't looked very carefully. (i would like to mention here that in a REGULAR wal-mart, not a super store wal-mart, i would know just where to find everything! sadly, i was not in a regular wal-mart.) i did not see any spray bottles. so i wandered a bit more. i found myself in the grocery aisles (perhaps i should tell you at this point that i had not eaten breakfast yet. when i left the house this morning, i was just going to do a couple of quick errands and then treat myself to mcdonald's. it would have been a good plan if the super store didn't currently have me in it's evil clutches!) and i was hungry. i thought it might be a devil donut kind of day, but i couldn't find the kind i like. curses!! so i bought baby carrots with ranch dressing, and apples with peanut butter. and then i threw in a small bag of crunchy cheetos for nutritional balance. and then i happened upon the vinegar, so i tossed that in my cart, feeling virtuous, because vinegar was on my list!

so was a spray bottle, but i was having no luck finding one.

i decided my only hope was to find a wal-mart employee and beg for help. i pushed my cart through the narrow, crowded aisles from one end of the store to the other, and i did not see one employee. not one. it's like somebody called ahead and said, "there is a lady in a 2001 red old navy fourth of july shirt and denim shorts (which have seen better days,) looking for help. RUN! HIDE! DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT!!!"

ok, maybe i am just slightly paranoid, but i am telling you, i could not find ANYONE in a blue jacket to help me. but i did not give up! oh no i did not! although, i was starting to consider buying a cheap cleaner and dumping it out, just so i could have the spray bottle...

i finally found a guy stocking shelves. before he could scuttle away from me into the next row, i said, "EXCUSE ME!" (i was thinking, "don't even TRY to get away from me. i will run you over with my cart and not experience one second of remorse. i need help! and you are wearing a blue wal-mart jacket and a walkie-talkie. you are REQUIRED to help me!!") he looked at me like i was going to accost him (maybe he could read minds...) but he didn't move. so i continued. "can you please tell me where i might find empty spray bottles?" i said this very nicely, and smiled. he quickly said, "i think they are with the paper goods and cleaning supplies. or you might find a small one in health and beauty." and then he bolted. he was quick.

ok, well i had already looked in paper goods and cleaning supplies--twice--but maybe i had missed it. so back i went. i looked carefully at every product on the shelves, and found exactly zero empty spray bottles. by now, i decided even a tiny, travel sized spray bottle would be better than none, so i took off toward health and beauty. and found nothing.

perhaps i should not have said "might find..."

i had now been wandering around wal-mart for an hour. i was tired. i was HUNGRY. and i had just discovered that when they turned the wal-mart into a super store and added all those groceries aisles, they took out the mcdonald's.

i was not enjoying my morning...

if i was going to get out of this without someone getting hurt, then i was going to need help. serious help. i don't like to ask for help when i am looking for something in a store though, because my friend becky used to be a secret shopper for a chain of grocery stores. i went with her once, and the thing i remember from that trip was that when she asked an employee where something was, they were not just supposed to tell her how to find it--they were supposed to take her there. i remember that every time i have to ask for help. and i hate it, because they always take me from point a to point b in the quickest way possible. what if something catches my eye, and i want to stop and check it out? what if i see someone i know? (ok, i never see someone i know. but it could happen...) what if i change my mind, and they have wasted a trip clear across the store, and then they stand there and look at me like 'really? do you think i have the time to take you on a tour of the store today? i have work to do, you know. serious work. and now you have just wasted five minutes of my valuable time. don't even look at me! i am going on my break!!' but today all those concerns went out the window. i needed a spray bottle, and i needed it now. but the "bait" was no longer enticing me to navigate this stupid superstore maze by myself. i was starting to feel like the rat that says, "the heck with it," and starts crawling over the walls. so i grabbed the first employee i found, and asked if she could help me find an empty spray bottle. and she did.

she took me right to them. they were with the ironing boards. THE IRONING BOARDS!!! i would think a plastic bottle of any kind would be the last thing you would want near a hot iron, but since they haven't asked me to organize the wal-mart superstores yet, i guess that is where they are. i thanked the kind lady in the blue jacket profusely and headed toward the cash registers with my list complete.

i did not pass GO. i did not collect $200. i did not stop at mcdonald's.

i did, however, decide that in the future perhaps i should avoid wal-mart super stores at all costs.