I was looking through Taylor’s flickr for raccoon pictures yesterday and rediscovered these shots from summer 2009. There was a heat wave and this mama raccoon came out with her three babies- I guess it was too hot in their den? idk, but the babies were scampering around on my neighbor’s garage roof and the mama was just flaked out on the fence.
Poor mama! Now, look at the little guy on the roof:
Remind you of anyone? Like perhaps… FAT STUPID MARVIN???
I am not a person who is overly concerned with her appearance. I mean, sure, I like to look nice, but I don’t ever look perfect. I’m a real person, not an airbrushed picture. I have pores and flyaway hairs (and grey ones) and even the start of some wrinkles. It’s fine, I accept this. I have no problem with going out in public with no makeup, and even posting pictures of my makeup-less self ON THE INTERNET. Pictures where I look weird, or ugly! Where everyone can see! And judge! The thing is, I LIKE being a real person who doesn’t care about this stuff, it makes life so much easier. There is ONE THING, though, that I can’t deal with.
PIMPLES. GAT-DANG PIMPLES.
I’m THIRTY-THREE, why am I getting pimples??? When I was in my late teens/early twenties I had problems with cystic acne, and went through several rounds of tetracycline to clear it up (which also helped to yellow my teeth nicely). In my mid-twenties I had a flare-up and not wanting more antibiotics, I was prescribed some harsh retinol cream that fried my face and didn’t do much for the blemishes (although I think it helped with the aforementioned tiny wrinkles), but eventually my face cleared up on its own, and since then it’s been mostly smooth sailing.
Until this week. This week my face (and body!) have FREAKED OUT. I have two huge blemishes on my upper chest, right by my collarbones on either side. They are so symmetrical Taylor wondered if they were some sort of supernumerary nipples (HAHA) but thankfully they are going away now. My main concern is this chin blemish. It’s invisible irl but shows up slightly in photobooth pictures.
I know it looks like nothing but please rest assured it is HUGE and PAINFUL. It’s like a pain marble inserted into my skin. It just hurts and hurts all the time and there’s NOTHING I can do except wait it out. God, face. GET IT TOGETHER >:|
I slept in this morning so I didn’t have a chance to clean up the new office before starting work, but I managed to get it done throughout the day. I’d originally planned to put my desk on the opposite wall, but I kind of like it under that fake window, for now at least.
These things don’t have a permanent home yet: Claire’s tower, one of the bookcases I took down off the wall, assorted large vinyl toys and our robot lamp. I kind of like them here though, the toys match the ~colour scheme~ and I was finally able to get the magazine files full of Taylor’s comics out of the bedroom!
Claire has been enjoying all my furniture rearranging since I’ve been leaving out lots of temporary cat beds.
The base of the new Christmas tree is too big to fit inside the cube I used last year and I don’t have a tree skirt :/ My Birds of a Feather rug makes an adequate substitute for now; Claire is certainly on board!
Last night when I was painting Marvin stuck his face right in the open window, I was up on a little step-ladder at the time and I just about fell off in surprise! He also tried to steal some suction cups (from Christmas lights last year) of the windowsill. Sneaky Marvin!
Also, PUPPY.
WINK!
I painted the new office/old living room tonight! I didn’t think I’d have enough time since Sym has piano on Tuesdays, but her teacher (like me and everyone I know) is sick so he cancelled. I think I’m done, but I won’t be able to tell for sure until the morning, so now it’s time to go wash all the paint splatters off and go to bed!
Now that the new living room is “done” (I still need to put up pictures and buy a bookcase or two, some end tables, and Taylor’s precious speaker stands) it’s time to start working on the old one. As you can sort-of see in the picture below, it’s a mess:
IGNORE ME! There are holes from where the tv and a mini shelf used to be, and there was a Lack wall shelf and two Expedit 1×5 bookcases mounted on the wall that had to come down. I figured I’d tackle that this morning so I could start filling all the holes in preparation for painting. I put those two Expedits up all by myself and I really have no idea how- they were WEDGED between the brackets under them and the ceiling above them. To get them down was no small feat, and I definitely conked myself in the head with one and also did this when the bracket tore out of the wall.
WHOOPSIES. There are 34 regular holes to fill and that double-holed tear, which is about 3 1/2″ across, so I have my work cut out for me! By the way, that is a much more accurate representation of the pale green living room wall colour- this room has more natural light and a fixture with halogen bulbs instead of the CFL titty lights in the new living room. I guess I need to buy some new lights too!
This morning while I was walking Georgie I ran into Sym’s teacher from kindergarten, Ms Griggs, and she told me there is a little girl in her class this year that reminds her so much of Sym that she always calls her “Symphony.” That might not sound like much, but my girl must have made a pretty strong impression to be remembered so fondly.
One of my Friday night visitors. There were three little raccoons- a brave one, a shy one and this one, who I named Marvin. Fat, stupid Marvin, who just sat there and stared at me.
I spent almost the entire weekend tearing my apartment down and building it up again. It took me most of Saturday afternoon just to move the tv- it’s mounted to the wall and the first time I put the bracket up it ended up being a quarter of an inch off being level so I had to start all over, plus fill in the holes and repaint that spot. So annoying! The rooms are basically switched now, and we got rid of two big pieces of furniture and about four or five bags of trash. I’ve spent all of today cleaning up., and as a result I don’t have anything fun to post about, except a couple little bits.
Our first Christmas gift! We got this from Taylor’s sister and her boyfriend and OF COURSE I had to open it as soon as it came. It’s tealight holder that’s a little forest with deers and an owl and it’s so cute, I just love it!
The one thing we did do was last night Taylor and I FINALLY say the new Harry Potter movie- we’ve planned to go a bunch of times but always changed our minds because we were lazy or it was cold and rainy out. We had actually decided not to go again, but at the last minute I was like NOPE, WE’RE GOING, TURN OFF THE XBOX AND PUT ON A SHIRT. I’m glad we did, not just because I really wanted to see it AND it was really good, but because we needed to get out of the house for a while!
it looks yellower/darker in this pic than irl because of the TERRIBLE lighting in this room- CFLs in ugly titty lights! this will have to change
Last night I was able to get two coats done on the remaining walls in the new living room, but it was so dark I wanted to wait until the morning to see if it needed a third, which it does. While the kids were having snack I did all the edges, and at naptime I can do all the rollering and then I’ll be finished! Theoretically I could probably even move the living room furniture in here this weekend but I don’t know if Taylor will be up for that.
Georgie has not been very much of a help. Last night while I was giving Claire her insulin Georgie stole the foam brush I was using for the edges and started chewing it up on the carpet, and she was sniffing at the wet paint this morning- she has pale green whiskers now. She also has some pale green paw pads, but then again, so do I! I mean. The bottoms of my feet. Not my paw pads.
I moved my desk! Georgie helped! Not really. Last night I painted painted painted and got the north wall finished, so this morning I moved my desk over from the west wall- now I can paint the rest of the room (once I finish spackling all the holes and dents, you can kind of see how much I’ve done already on that little section of wall between the right-hand closet door and the foyer entrance) and move the piano to its final resting place. For now, though, it’s a mess in here. On the left of that picture you can see the old alley dresser which I still haven’t refinished. Out of frame behind it is the piano, and that big white box in front of it is my new Christmas tree, which was just delivered, yay!