I always think of August as the month that begins and ends in the blink of an eye. It has always been the transition month of "well it's still summer technically but it's also kind of fall already technically... so we're at an impasse." Imagine I said "impasse" with a French accent. Because I did. This transition feeling is compounded by the fact I work retail and in the world of retail, life moves at the speed of light. By mid June we were getting autumn decorations and next week we will already be setting a floorset with our Halloween merchandise a full two months early. All this of course due to the beginning of October meaning the start of "Holiday" and that's a just a joy all around!
Yup.
All in all August was good to me, I can't complain. I could complain but no one would listen anyway so I shan't. Overall it was hot. Hot hot hot. How hot? Hot. I ran my air conditioner almost every day and for me that's something. Of course I didn't run it during the few days the power was out due to the quintuplet tornados at the beginning of the month but you get the picture.
Right after the tornados spun through (pun intended) things started falling back into place for me in a weird way. I had somewhat of a panic attack early this month and freaked out for a few days. I kept myself pretty collected at work but when I would get home it just got... uggs. With the crying and the whining and the yadda yadda. I think subconsciously I started putting myself back into the "victim" role in life, and we should all know by now I'm not a big fan of being the victim. I started feeling alone... in this all by myself... depressed... and I felt it was ironic because the photo shoot I did back in May for the Women's Fund in Oshkosh was about ladies feeling alone. Men too, I suppose.
Harumph.
Having mentioned said shoot, they finally put my pretty face on the Facebook page. I'm a celebrity ::tosses hair:: and I don't know why the OTHER who was there that day isn't shown. Guess they chose the best ::tosses hair again and stumbles:: Whatevs.
I had to start putting myself back into the shoes I filled in 2012. Namely in the lessons learned. It was difficult for me last year to reach out to so many people and attempt to get together so many times. I'm a fairly introverted person and I usually aquiesce when I'm invited somewhere, not the other way around. That sounds awkward... I'm never the planner, just the invitee? That's a little better. But I discovered being the planner puts you in control of the situation and your happiness, and I was really happy last year. Funny how quickly you abandon the things that make you happy, right? So I turned it around (always getting better at that) and just took it into my own hands.
I reconnected with Scout. After our parting of ways June 1st I hadn't seen him (only texted him once, yay me!) or heard from him since and decided that because it ended amicably and no one was at fault, there was no reason we couldn't be friends. We met for coffee and had a great day. Three hours talking (found out his mother stalked my blogs for a while (hello if you're reading this now and please stop following me because I know you hate me.)) Something happened to my red bracelet when we were at coffee (I'm working on a blog for that, stay tuned) that also helped with my mindset. After coffee we parted for a bit but then went out for a couple drinks and a movie at the cheap seats that evening. It was amazing being able to slide back in to how things were at one point and not worry about "who was thinking what" and "why they were thinking it when." We just hung out like two dudes.
Can't believe I said that.
After that jaunt I made a conscious effort to start branching out of my social network a bit. I went to the farmer's market one saturday with a friend named Tina, now referred to as Miss T, and had a blast. Miss T and I met through one of my former bests and have hung out a couple times alone over the years but never really made the effort to keep it up. Well it's a new chapter kids because we've now hung out three times! In two weeks! That's a record and one I'm going to keep breaking. I need to be better about reaching out to the people I enjoy and making the effort to actually see them on a normal basis.
It's not rocket science, despite how hard I make it out to be. Things should be as simple as "hey, I enjoy talking to you and always have a blast when we get together so let's do this all the time!" They SHOULDN'T be "hey, I enjoy talking to you and always have a blast when we get together so I'll see you in a couple months!" So dumb. So me.
Finally the last big notable thing I did this month was pop-it and lock-it on a new headboard. I bought my bed with that dumb whore I used to date and while I initially loved it, I think said adoration lasted a couple months and then it turned into "nothing special" and eventually just a reminder of something I'd failed at (a relationship, obvs.) I was poking around Pinterest and came across a reclaimed wood headboard someone had put up that they made out of old barn wood. Seeing as I don't have access to old barn wood I had to look up a way to stain/distress wood to make it look reclaimed. And find a way I did!
After a quick (not quick) and normal (never normal with @markstyleme) trip to Home Depot, I walked away with my supplies for a price of about $60. One can of ebony stain, one can of dark walnut stain, one can of polyurethane, three cheap paint brushes, and twenty 1"x4"x8' cheap pine boards. In the end the actual project took about twelve hours of physical labor but I am so pleased with the results. After laying the boards out (top left pic (below)) I sanded them all down, especially the corners to soften them up. Then I beat the fuck out of them (top right) so get all of the knicks/scratches/scrapes/bangs I could that you would find in an oldoldold floor. I had to work the next day so the following I was able to start the staining process (middle-left and center.) You can see how despite using just two stains, almost none of the boards look alike. And it was quick! I think it took a total of two hours to stain all 23 slats of wood in the various methods I adopted.
I was so pleased with the staining process in fact that when I started the polyurethane I panicked because I didn't like how it looked. As I went along though and painted more of it on I absolutely fell in love with what I was creating and I couldn't wait to install it the next day. The installation went easily but slowly. Being an army of one (my preference, because then I can be even more proud of my work) I had to figure this bitch out on my own but I had a blast doing it. I listened to some good tunes, drank some good lemonade, and chatted plenty with my cats while drilling right into that headboard of the past. You can kind of see the stack of movies I used to make sure they all started at the same height. What a genius I am!
So there it is, my first homemade piece of furniture. It immediately got me to thinking about what I would want to do next in terms of furniture because I am so excited to just keep going. And if I keep up with the inspiration, I think I'll start taking orders. And who knows... maybe I'll actually start accepting orders for my paintings, too. Never too late to take on a new venture, right?
I'm sorry I don't have a better message/theme this month. Like I started this thing with, August is just that weird transition month. It is what it is, gets you from summer to fall, and I suppose that's what this blog did. Pretty soon I'll post about what happened to my bracelet and then we can all gossip and chat about how exciting it was.
Or wasn't.
So what else happened in August? Went to Noah's Ark for a SECOND time this year, saw a friend get busted in the face by his iPhone, and survived five tornados (I'll never stop saying that, either.) Got super excited for the next Fast and Furious movies after what the 6th one revealed at the end, decided I like apple ales, and finally started losing weight again. Held hands (more than once) with a new boy, officially decided on my Halloween 2013 costume (you're gonna shit,) and bought tickets to see the Naked and Famous in concert this October in Chicago.
Oh, and I grew a beard. Much to the chagrin of some, and of course to the adoration of others.
Toodles!
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