manual labor

This past Sunday, Alison and I decided to tackle our mini decorating project. A couple of months ago a persistent leak in the flat above us gave way to genuine disaster, flooded our flat, shorted out electricity in half our home (still no light in the bathroom!), and caused parts of our ceiling to cave in. We have been in a battle with the council ever since, but that's another story. We have been wistfully discussing plans for the kitchen and bathroom since the night we came in to discover that our home had been converted to a wading pool. This weekend, thanks to Alison's motivational paint purchases, we decided to attack our project.

Anyone who has ever completed her own home remodeling/decorating project will surely appreciate certain truths about such things: 1) No matter how much you plan, you never have all of the right tools. 2) It will take hours-- if not days or months longer-- than you imagine. 3) Nothing is as simple as it seems. Oh, how painful (no, really, physically painful!) it is to learn such lessons! We set out to strip old plaster and paint from the water-damaged bathroom and kitchen ceilings, prep them, and slap on new paint. Nothing fancy. Ah, if only we had known...

Because I still don't have full function of my shoulders and my neck is totally out of commission, I will refrain from assessing the wisdom of DIY until a future date when my optimism returns. I can say, however, that we managed to strip the ceiling in the kitchen, but not paint it. Having lost the desire to ever even enter our kitchen again, we decided to switch to stripping the bathroom with the logic that stripping everything and then painting was what actually made more sense. (Don't you love the tricks we play on ourselves to keep ourselves going!?!) At 10pm, after having spent twelve hours ingesting and inhaling debris of questionable safety, covered in grime, and incredibly sore, we abandoned ship. Then, we realized that we needed to shower and possibly cook and we would have to clean. Not the highlight of my weekend.

Thank goodness for C-SPAN, though. I have been convalescing at home and feeding my political obsessions with their live internet stream. I don't have a television, so to be able to watch the DNC-Denver speeches live on my computer is amazing. Of course, my mother might disagree. I have been calling her every ten minutes with a comment on one speech or another or with some quip from New York Times opinion pieces. (My other vice.) Unfortunately, this also means that for the last three days and for the next week my London life is officially conforming to eastern time.

So, yes, no comment on DIY until the pride of accomplishment replaces the ache in my back. Thank you to my partner in crime, Alison. Thank goodness for C-SPAN, Skype, and the DNC. Oh, and one more thing: forget Hillary, forget Barack, definitely forget John McCain... can I vote for Michelle?


much love.