Basketcase

Daniel left today and I have been an emotional wreck. Who knew that this experience would be so trying? Worse is that Sophie is really taking it hard. It is amazing how much she seems to know. All day long, she just laid on the our over-sized leather chair, staring forlornly out the living room window.

When Daniel packed up the car to leave, she wanted to go with him. She refused to come inside and I had to drag her in which made me feel terrible.

Daniel and I had a late lunch together at The Original Pancake House and then said a tearful goodbye in the parking lot. Afterward I ran some errands, then came home and took Sophie on a long run. We both needed it. Not sure how we will get through the coming week.

Last Days Together...

Today was our last big push to get the house finished. There are still some minor things to wrap up (mostly touching up paint and lots of cleaning). Since Daniel leaves tomorrow, this means the brunt of this work is now on my shoulders.

Hopefully I will have time to photograph the house and get it posted on Craigslist so we can gauge interest this week. I will also get the responsibility of talking to potential realtors. That should be interesting.

In the past month, Daniel and I have had almost no time to devote to being together. We have been doing what needs to be done, but now that we are at the point where he is leaving, I am feeling very anxious about everything.

I know that we are not the first couple in the history of the world to have to be separated for a job. And we won't be the last. But somehow, that doesn't make it any easier.

We spent the entire day working on house stuff. And now we are both exhausted and sore. Daniel is getting cleaned up and then we will grab a bite to eat. There is laundry to be done before he leaves and we still need to determine what he needs to take with him since he will be driving back and forth every weekend. In general I don't think that we feel very prepared for this ordeal. 

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 9

The book jacket of A Meaningful Life by L.J. Davis declares this novel to be a black comedy, I would call it a tragedy {is that the same thing?}.

It has comic elements, but it is tragic that the main character, Lowell Lake, is incredibly lost. In the first half of the book, Lowell realizes that he leads a meaningless life. In the second half, he attempts to live more meaningfully by buying and attempting to restore an old Brownstone in Brooklyn.

His relationship with his wife quickly deteriorates, he has a bizarre {surprising encounter that ends badly} and nothing meaningful actually happens in the ENTIRE book.

This is such a depressing story, I didn't find any quotes worth including... there are some comic descriptions, but mostly this is a sad story of a sad life.
  

One More Book 

This one is not actually going to count toward my 52 Books for the year since I actually read it about 7 years ago. However, after having a discussion with a friend, I did want to include An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison in this week's post. This book gives an amazing glimpse into the mind of a woman living with Bipolar Disorder. If you are interested in BD or know someone who lives with it, I would highly recommend that you read this autobiography.

 

Does this mean I'm a Slacker?

I find it interesting (enlightening maybe) that my work work is not something I go out of my way to put extra hours in to. Granted I work late and come in early when I have to meet deadlines, but that is about it. In this regard, I suppose I am a bit of a slacker. See 52 Books in 52 Weeks Doing Nothing post.

On the other hand, if I am working on a home renovation project, or trying out a new recipe or I get a freelance project, I find myself working like crazy to get this type of work accomplished. In this sense, I am far from being a slacker.

Case in point: 

Monday I worked all day at my day job (as a graphic designer for a product development firm). Then came home, made a pot of gumbo and proceeded to paint my newly dry-walled laundry room until 10 pm.

Yesterday I came home from work and received a message from a friend regarding a freelance project that she needed help with asap. I proceeded to work until 2 am to get that project done. This is definitely not a slacker attitude... A negative side effect of staying up until 2 am is that I was in no shape to get up and run with my dog this morning. We both suffered from that :(

Where do you find yourself slacking and what things drive you to work hard?

Project 52: Date Nights - Table Saw

This date is a bit of a stretch, but it is what our life is right now...

The entire weekend was spent working on house projects. Saturday we took an intermission to run out for lunch (we also hauled some leftover drywall to the landfill and made stops at Home Depot and Lowe's).

Lunch was great - barbecue from the Q Shack. Before heading to Lowe's to buy caulk, we made a stop at Home Depot to pick up some drywall mud. Daniel came out of HD and we headed over to Lowe's and proceeded to have the following conversation: 

Daniel: "So there's a really nice table saw at HD marked down from $500 to $300." 

Me: "Uh-huh. Don't we already have a table saw?" 

Him: "Yeah, but this is a really good deal. There is only one left and I can sell the stand that comes with it on Craigslist for $100 - so really it would only cost us $200."

Me: "I see. Do you need it?"

Him: "Define need." 

Me: "Is it necessary to your life?"

Him: "Ummm..."

I think for a little while... 

Me: "Since it is such a good deal and there is only one left and its a Saturday, let's go pick it up and we can think about it later."

Daniel was shocked that I agreed so easily.

Me: "Worst-case scenario, you sell the whole thing on Craigslist and make a $200 profit."

Him: "I love you."

We went back  to Home Depot to pick up the table saw. They had to load it on our trailer with a fork lift because it weighed 500 lbs. At home our friend, Benjy, helped Daniel unload it - they had to use the engine hoist to get it off of the trailer.

A few of our favorite things {Home Edition}

After {almost} 5 years of home renovation, there are some things we have learned make our projects much simpler. 

The first is ear plugs. When you are working with power tools {indoors} it is important to protect your ears. In the early days of having a double-compound miter saw set up in our living room and various power tools {skill saw, drills, nail guns, etc} laying around {and in constant use}, ear protection was a priority {it still is}.

We have several pairs of these Harbor Freight specials {ear muffs} lying around. They are my faves... for some reason, ear plugs don't work well in my ears {they always feel like they are falling out}.

Quick story: In the first year of our renovation, my brother spent a summer with us. One Saturday morning, Daniel and I had been up early working on a project in the living room. We both had on ear muffs which required us to raise our voices {yell} in order to hear each other.

Later that day, my brother pulled me aside and asked if everything was ok. I was confused about his question. He clarified by saying, "You guys have been yelling at each other all morning and I thought you were having a fight!" He had been in his bedroom with the door closed and had no idea we were talking {yelling} about our project... oops.

Daniel prefers these 3M Combat Arms ear plugs, found at Northern Tools. The Green end offers constant protection against noise while the yellow end lets wearer hear clearly with instant protection against sudden loud noises.

Another product we have found use is DAP Painter's Putty {we call it dope}. This stuff is AMAZING for filling holes in trim. It has really made our lives easier.

 

We started out using Elmer's Wood Filler - which is a total pain. It is hard to squeeze out of the tube and you have to go back and sand it. We are so thankful our friend, Benjy, introduced to dope.

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 8

Doing Nothing by Tom Lutz is essentially the history of the slacker. From Benjamin Franklin and Thoreau to communes, beatniks, the punk movement and George W. Bush – I found this history to be quite interesting. While I expected to see references to Office Space and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I was surprised by the amount of references to authors, music and movies that I had not considered before. It turns out that our culture is heavily defined by slackers.

There is definitely a dichotomy of working too much vs. working too little and lots of misunderstandings in between. I think it boils down to contentment. We are unhappy when we work too much and we get bored when we feel like we have nothing to do...

This book also points out that often those who would be labeled slackers are actually quite busy, while those who are seen as workaholics may be good at pretending to look busy.

Narrowing down to just 5 quotes proved difficult as there were a lot of good ones...

"(The movie) Office Space is more than a comedy. It is an anthem for the down-trodden cube-borgs everywhere, who have had the life and soul stomped out of them by an uncaring corporate entity." – eFilmCritic.com

We all feel overworked, underpaid and under appreciated, but we all occasionally fear we are imposters, freeloaders, bums.

Doing nothing, purposely meaningless work, unsullied play, meaningless movement – in a culture obsessed with purpose, pragmatism and productivity, to do nothing is not a neutral act. To conspicuously do nothing is to assert and insist upon a counterculture identity. (Referring to the skate boarding culture of the 1970s).

"The twentysomethings were a marketer's worst nightmare. They could very well be the demographic from hell." – Marketing News (Referring to Generation X)

"GenXers' willingness to walk away from an unsatisfactory employment relationship luanched the staffing crisis that plagues employers today and has allowed them to become the most entrepreneurial generation in history." - Bruce Tulgar