Monday, March 26, 2007

I hate my house

Okay I don't really HATE my house - I hate how it's decorated. I hate the garden outside (or lack of one). I hate where my furniture is placed and the colors and the pictures on the wall don't look right.

AND I want to go on a road trip - it's spring, I'm getting itchy feet and need to DO something or GO somewhere.

But mostly I want to love my house and how it looks and I want it to feel homey, and it just doesn't. Sooooo I'm making a list - because I'm anal and I love lists - and it's really long so far. Some of the things are:

1. Take pictures down
2. Wash walls (painting will happen soonish)
3. Buy an area rug for the living room
4. Re-arrange the couch and chair
5. Bring up the top of the entertainment cabinet and put it on the bottom
6. Throw every little knick knacky thing in a box and decide if you want it or not
7. Re-arrange the pictures in the living room
8. Look at where to put the piano - in the entry as it is now or move it to the "other wall" - which is the only other place to put it
9. Buy a throw for the back of the couch that will pull one of the colors in from the area rug and tie the colors of the living room together, because you're suppose to do that, I guess.
10. Buy a mirror or nice wall ornament thing for the wall - well, for two walls...maybe three.

Then I have a list for the bedroom and a list for the bathroom and the ensuite and the dining room area...and the longer my list grows, the more painful and frustrating this is becoming because I don't know if I can do it. I have no concept of color and decorating is so beyond me. We have lived in five places and I have never managed to decorate any of them to the point where I'd call it "nice" and "homey" and "lived in." I'm not much for the country look - I don't like roosters or cows or pigs...I don't want my salt to pour out of a barnyard animal and I don't want my ovenmitts to moo. I like "clean lines" whatever the hell that means - like on Trading Spaces of old - Vern was totally my style. But I can't afford Vern. Or in "today's decorating market" on Oprah - that Nate guy - the cute one? He's got good taste - I want him to decorate my house. But I can't afford Nate. So that leaves me, to try and "copy" their style and I have no sense for it.

God help me.

So who made the rules, anyway?

Do you ever drive around and think - geez, who came up with the idea of a four-way stop and how did they convince everyone way back before "laws" to follow the idea of stopping and waiting for someone else to go first?

I was driving today and wondered who decided that we should drive on the right side of the road instead of the left - and why does Australia and Europe have to be different from us? What makes one way better then the other way?

Was there ever revolts back in the horse and buggy days against some of the rules of the road? I might've wondered who the hell made Mr. "Rules of the Road" the deciding factor on how my horse should pull my cart...and here we are however many years later, following the same rules, albeit with a few adjustments here and there - and well, electricity. The whole red/yellow/green was pretty smart - if people understood what red/yellow/green means.

Nowadays many people think red means "stop....if you feel like it" -- so many way back when, the four-way-stop had the same problem...granted most people don't know what a four-way-stop is now either, so that problem hasn't ever been solved. One of life's mysteries, right?

Anyway, my daughter - four years old - is a little smart ass..meant in a nice way, of course. She goes to me "Mom, you clean up my mess because it's the Mom's job to clean and my job to make the mess." WHAAAAAA?? Where in the heck did she learn that rule? All weekend I listened to "Mom, you did it, it's YOUR job." Oh boy, did she learn how wrong she was. Yeesh.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Happy March 2nd

Okay it's March 2nd and I'm pleased to report that the sleeping-during-the-day issue with the wee one has been sorted out. Basically the idea is to let her scream until she falls asleep. Now many people think this is mean and wrong and blah blah blah - all I can say is I'll do what works. The first day the couple of naps took about 20 - 35 minutes for her to calm herself enough to sleep...then down to 10 - 15 minutes...then down to 5 and now it's only a couple minutes of talking to herself and sucking her toes (which is an amazing feat!!) before she drifts off to lala land.
Back to the toe sucking phenomenon...it's really kinda cool. She grabs those little cute toes and well sucks on them - pretty basic, but damn those babies are flexible aren't they!?! If not totally inappropriate - I mean if I were to rip my sock off and start to suck on my toes I'm pretty certain people who look at me as though I had some serious issues. Today she was pulling on her feet and managed to flip her body over to her tummy - so that was exciting because she hasn't really done the back-to-front roll over yet...yay!

Anyone watch any great movies lately? I've watched both the Illusionist and the Prestige over the last couple weeks and I really enjoyed both of them - although I'm more partial to the Illusionist because I have a major "thing" for Edward Norton - ever since he shaved his head in "American History X" mmm mmm yum. Although Christian Bale is pretty damn great too - and my "thing" started for him wayyyy back in "Newsies" - anyone see that? Oooh la la what a great little musical.