wow. It's been a crazy month!

My best friend since 7th grade is getting hitched in a month, and I'm her maid of dishonor. I'm throwing her bridal shower, which has been crazy because I live 330 miles away from her. So, today, I'm packing up my supplies and heading north to throw a shower that will buck all bridal shower trends. We're not playing those stupid games, it's not in the middle of the afternoon and it going to be a kick ass cocktail party in an equally kick ass loft hotel suite. And, since it's a cocktail party, I'm excited to get dressed up all fancy. I bought a fabulous little black dress in February for a wedding, and have only worn it once, so it will be nice to get some more mileage out of it this weekend. I'm excited and if I remember to bring my camera, I'll post some pictures.

My mom is giving me some furniture that she's had since I was a child, including a 22-year old IKEA table. I know, it's crazy that stuff from IKEA can last that long, but it's solid wood and totally kick ass. I think I'll hang on to it as long as possible so one day I can say "hey look at my vintage IKEA table."

In sadder news, one of my cousins died. Suicide. It's so horrible and I shouldn't even be writing it on here, but I feel like I have to. I have 17 first cousins, but because my family is fucked up and spread out all over this country, I haven't met 4 of them. One of the 4 is a 20 year old guy, that is a product of one of my uncle's first marriage, who ended his life this week. I don't know what transpired or compelled him to do it, but he leaves behind a very distraught family including a wife and very young child. It's so, so, so horrible and hits so close to home because I've struggled with depression my entire life and around that age I remember it was extremely tough to deal with. And as much as those thoughts crossed my mind, I knew that wouldn't resolve anything. It's such a tragedy to see someone end their life like this, and it just reaffirms for me that any pain caused by depression isn't permanent and things will get better... and ending your life early destroys the lives of the people around you. I hope his soul has found peace and I grieve for my uncle and the rest of my family right now.

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Ha. I had to write a bio for myself to be included in presentation packets for my firm. It was hard to resist putting "Liz is just awesome, that's all you need to know"... but I resisted. That would be a lame reason to get fired, especially since I like my job.

Carry on. Nothin' to see here.

I got this fwd. email from a friend just now, and it made me smile. It's been a difficult stretch of time and I've been really cranky, so it's nice to get this crap in my email box every now & then. I may be hundreds of miles from my friends and family, but I know plenty of people out there lovre me.

And for the record, I stopped licking windows.

I don't care if you lick windows,

take the special bus or occasionally pee on yourself.
You hang in there, sunshine - you're friggin' special.
Every sixty seconds you spend angry, upset or mad,
is a full minute of happiness you'll never get back.
Today's Message of the Day is:
Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly,
Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile..

Life may not be the party we hoped for,
but while we're here, we should dance...

man, oh man, I'm so bad at updating this thing. I need to do something about this! Maybe tomorrow...

But, in the meantime, I'm going to rant about how incensed I am about a website/blog that I came across called "The Skinny Website" ( http://theskinnywebsite.com/site/ ) It's an entire website devoted to obsessing over the weight of celebrities... and I find it absolutely disgusting. Who cares if any of these thin ladies gained 4 pounds? I flipped through a few pages to see Kelly Clarkson and Jessica Simpson being ripped to shreds because apparently they've gained weight. WHO THE FUCK CARES? If you like their music, buy it... if you don't... why let it consume your time? This website is just another thing that is wrong with our society, but my rant here will do nothing about it. I'm just surprised that this website is able to get ads... I wonder if the companies that advertise on there know they're actually paying to keep this sort of slanderous site going?

I thought about sending some hate mail, but it will probably be dismissed, so I'm not going to waste my time. I just find it so ridiculous that people spend so much time caring about the weight of female celebrities, yet rarely say anything about male celebrities that are average or overweight. And we all wonder why there is such an issue with females and their body image in this country. Sheesh!

I often have a recurring dream that I'm at work, answering the phone because our receptionist has vanished, and someone calls asking for Mr. Ninja.  I can understand having this dream once, but multiple times?!?  I woke up this morning utterly confused as to why someone would call me to try to talk to Mr. Ninja.  I don't even know any ninjas, let alone some ninja with an over inflated ego who demands the respect that "Mr." will somehow deliver.  Geez. 

  

Man, what a weird day! I was driving to Target on my lunch break and while I was in a school zone, maintaining the 25mph speed limit (because cops sit there frequently), some blue-haired old lady zoomed past me and flicked me off.  She was sporting an oversized Buick and a handicap plaquered.  What the hell?  Someone needs to give their grandma a talkin' to.

Approximately 9 minutes later inside Target, I noticed two little caucasian boys chasing each other through the clothing department calling each other the n-word.  I SOOO wanted to smack their mom and tell her to teach those children some damn manners, but I decided against it so I wouldn't end up in the clank. 

Hopefully I don't run into any more idiots on the way home... but I probably will because the trifecta probably needs to be completed.  

Anywho... I went to Target to get a shelf for my recently painted bathroom.  The paint is aweseomer than awesome and I just need to hang a few things on the walls to get the look completed.  Once the shelf is up and stocked with potty paper and such, I'll be able to show it off.  It's quite the transformation!  This is the shelf that I bought... a simple little ledge and even cheaper in the store than online!  

paint

Man, I haven't posted in a while! I've been pretty busy and that's not letting up any time soon. I'm finally getting a start on painting my house! All of the walls are a dingy off-white. I picked up paint supplies at lunch today and will be swinging by the Sherwin Williams store on the way home for primer & paint. I'm going to experiment with their "Harmony" line which is eco friendly and VOC free. I'm working on a LEED  project and would like to test out the paint that I'm going to spec. I'm also excited because it doesn't smell as bad as other paints during the drying/curing process. This is handy because it's allergy season the Boy's sinuses, as well as mine, are really taking a beating.

It's easy to get caught up in the hype of "green products" that aren't really better for our planet, but a lot of products out there really do make a difference. I've done quite a bit of research on  paints, and I feel it's my duty as a designer to use and specify products that are manufactured with sustainability and the comfort of the end user in mind. I hope this paint product performs like it should, because I will be using it in a a 45,000 sq.ft. building that will have almost every inch of its vertical surfaces covered with it. 

This bathroom is a half bath with a washer & dryer behind bi-fold doors and the light levels are relatively low. I'll be using green on the walls, "extra white" on all trim and the ceiling because it reflects light well. Inside the washer/dryer area, I'm going to paint fat stripes in another green that is one shade lighter just to ad a little interest. I'll be sure to get up some before/after pictures... but the swatches should indicate what my intentions are.  

  

I'm off to get this show started..........

an unexpected holiday

WOO-HOO!! Thanks to western religions... tomorrow is Good Friday and I don't have to work. I've never had this holiday off before so it was a nice surprise to hear my boss talking to clients about how our office is closed tomorrow. No more than 20 minutes after finding this out, I booked a hotel room for tonight near the beach at an insanely low price. So, instead of having to celebrate the boy's birthday on a lame week night, we're going to party it up with a coupon for some free ribs at Sticky Fingers and then lounge by the ocean tomorrow. Sweetness!

I just started the application process to get another degree... in graphic design. Why not, right?

creepy

I just found a North Carolina residential building code in my desk from 1969... and it's only 86 pages. Eighty six pages is awfully short to dictate safety codes for homes, and that frightens me. I think I'll read through it tonight and see what has changed.

I'm not surprised that I found this considering my firm has been around since 1932.