What I Didn't Do This Summer

Here's what I didn't do this summer.

Paint my bathroom. Because I can't paint it until I get all the wallpaper glue scrubbed off. When I peeled the wallpaper off the walls, a thick layer of glue was left behind. Thick and cement-like. I have sprayed it with commercial wallpaper remover, with hot water mixed with Dawn dishwashing detergent, and with hot water mixed with fabric softener, then scraped and scraped and scraped.  And it still. won't. come. off. I've only been working on it, off and on (mostly off) for four years, since I got bored during the Great Swine Flu Quarantine at our house and pulled my first loose corner of wall paper....

My cats should only be this talented.

Clean the basement. (For the record, it's just a basement. It's not finished, so before you read this, don't think we have totally trashed usable living space.) It wasn't in too bad of shape pre-tornado (our personal timelines are usually defined as either before the tornado or after the tornado). Then it got filled up, temporarily, with other people's salvaged items, some of which were spread around to dry. Then when we needed to add something of our own to the basement, we just set it down anywhere. Just as we were returning the salvaged items and might be able to see the floor in the foreseeable future, my dad closed his hardware store, and we added a bunch of crap that we might need someday. End result is, we can't walk through the place. And I'm not exaggerating.

Fletcher on the basement stairs. Did you
really think I was going to show you what
a disaster it is down there?! Psshhh!

Finish decorating my daughter's room. For her 14th birthday, which was in February, we promised to paint her room and fix it up (it hadn't been painted since it was her nursery, and she CONSTANTLY COMPLAINED about the pale lavender walls). Found an old chest of drawers in March that had been completely redone with Annie Sloan paint. Brought it home and put it in the living room until we painted the room. Then I found an old 1920s style vanity in March that we brought home and put in the living room, where I painted it with chalk paint (and it looks AWESOME, if I do say so myself). And there both pieces sat until my daughter finally decided on a color to paint the room. That was accomplished in June, and she and I painted the room and arranged the furniture, but we've never put up window treatments. Or hung pictures on the wall. Or cleaned out her closet.  Maybe for her 15th birthday....

Before:
If you look in the lower right corner of the mirror,
you can see a corner of the chest of drawers.

During:
This took many, many coats of chalk paint and
many, many, many coats of paste wax.
Where's the "After" you may ask?
Forgot to take one.

The war paint was hilarious until she had to scrub it off.

I was also going to work on the kids' scrapbooks this summer. Write lesson plans for the school year ahead of time. Recover an ottoman. Paint my bedroom.

Well, this was a fun little writing exercise. Rather confirms something I have long suspected.

My name is Dyanne, and I'm an underachiever.

I'm a procrastinator.

I'm an underachieving procrastinator.



Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop prompt #2 What did you not get accomplished this summer that you wish you had time for?

Sum-Sum-Summertime

It was 100 degrees at 5 p.m. yesterday evening. That's hot. But that is not a complaint. I really, really HATE cold weather. You know, the kind where you shiver so much it hurts? Hate it. Therefore, my 10 Things of Thankful this week shall be dedicated to sum- sum- summertime.

I'm thankful that summer weather extremes don't cause roads to be impassable and sidewalks to be slicker than snot. (Don't even start with weather extremes like tornadoes. Been there already.)

The sacrifices one has
to make to get an
illustration. It was
yummy, by the way.

I'm thankful that there is an excuse to eat ice cream any time.

I'm thankful I can still wear shorts without looking too hideous.

I'm thankful to have summers off, so I can waste spend quality time embracing social media and chatting with my bloggy friends. Lizzi and I MAY have had a little too much fun yesterday. 

I'm thankful that I don't have to remember to grab a jacket when I leave the house, because it ain't a-gonna get cooler come evening.

I'm thankful for central air conditioning, because while I don't like winter, I'm still no pioneer when it comes to summer heat.

I'm thankful for ice cold Diet Coke. Well, that's not limited to just summertime. I'm thankful for it ALL YEAR LONG.

I'm thankful to have a membership at a private swimming pool (let's hear it for the 'Dale!). It's never crowded, we can bring our own food and drinks there (and can even use a charcoal grill to make dinner, if we are so inclined), and it's less than a ten minute drive from our house (that's driving 35 mph and hitting every stop light in between, which equals 6, if you're curious. IT'S A SMALL TOWN, PEOPLE).  It's oh, so relaxing and cooling to go to the pool in the early evening (say, 5 p.m. when it's a sultry 100 degrees outside), hang out in the pool like cows in a pond, and come home cool and refreshed.

A glimpse of the pool and cute lifeguard.

I'm thankful for maxi skirts and dresses. They hide a world of imperfections and allow air to whoosh up under the skirt and cool you off in places you'd just rather not sweat.

I'm thankful for lots of blue sky, bright sunshine, sunglasses, flip flops, popsicles, and the smell of sunscreen. 

And now a summer song by Mungo Jerry:

I hope this is stuck in your head forever, as it seems to be in mine lately. Fun Fact: I used to have to BEG the owner of the master recording of this song to renew licensing contracts for this for compilation albums that were produced by the division of Warner Music Group where I worked.

Summer of '78

It was the summer of 1978, the summer after graduation, the summer of driving around late at night, listening to music with the windows rolled down. It was Night Fever, Hot Blooded, Take A Chance On Me.  It was working at McDonalds in the morning and rehearsing and performing at Theater Under the Stars at night. It was Minsky's Pizza, Putsch's, the Alameda Plaza coffee shop and Winstead's. It was jeans shorts and spaghetti straps, flowered sundresses and long hair. It was Grease and Danny and Sandy and Hopelessly Devoted To You. It was Lake Jacomo and frisbees and friends and Blue River Road.  It was red, white and blue bomb pops.  It was Steely Dan and Bob Seger. And Genesis. And Jackson Browne. It was the end of one road and the beginning of another. 

Senior Pic from yearbook.
(Here's when I found out I don't
have many pics of me. Time to
visit mom and procure some inventory.)

Mama Kat's writer's workshop: write a post in just 12 lines.