Saturday, June 30, 2012

The kiddie pool catastrophe

Jets of water charge at my face as I quickly try to stop the leak.  How did this happen?  I was simply cleaning the bathroom.  If you follow my blog you will all know a few things about me:

I love photography
I love my husband
and I have a love/hate relationship with my fix-er-upper house

We took the venture three years ago to buy our first home and slowly we have been redoing it room by room.  Just a month ago we got to our last room: the main bathroom.  You'd think that it would have been a breaze considering I have already redone our kitchen and other bathroom.  My thoughts on the first day of deconstruction haunt me, "I got this!"

Have you ever seen the "Money Pit" with Tom Hanks?

Yea, everything that is normally easy was complicated and insane.  Installing a faucet is one of the most simple things why then did it take 5 days and 6 trips to Lowes and Home Depot to get it in?  "No, I really don't need that size.  You see by the faucet that I brought in I need 1/2 inch."  The lady in the blue vest looks at the faucet in my hands and declare, "That's not right.  You need the 3/8inch."  The determined and matter of fact tone did nothing for me, two deep breaths as I calm down the "ARE YOU CRAZY!  I'm literally holding the size I need!" to a much more polite, "Okay why don't we try the 3/8 inch and the 1/2 inch pipes and see what works."  As I finish a tightly clamped and trying to simulate a smile plasters across my face.

Driving home from my 4th trip to the hardware store windows rolled down and blasting the most angry ballad I could find playing across the air waves I pound my fist in the air with great virility and freedom at that moment knowing I was only minutes away from a completed bathroom.... Little did I know the I still had 3 more trips to  the store.

So needless to say that when I finally placed the facet in place and each pipe wound tight, hung the mirror and walked away last night thinking: "It is finished" I had no idea what was to happen this morning.

I walk in admiring our work and with a determined hand I go to make the bathroom sparkle or at least not have a thick layer of dust covering it.  I have made it through  most the bathroom slumped back and bruised knees from my deep desire for attention for detail when I move on to the bottom of the cabinet (oh yes, here's to being though).  My hand quickly and gently makes its way across the shelves when I notice that one of the water supply lines wasn't allowing a drawer to close.  "Simple enough" my thought as I reach to just slightly adjust the line.  It breaks off in my hand and with in moments the room is flooding with water.  Home alone I sit there hand glued to the pipe begging the furious water to quell and allow me the freedom to fix this.

As the water sprayed in all directions I couldn't help but start laughing, "On the bright side I had a very nice kiddie pool with built in sprinkler!"

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

How life changes

Like most people in life, and especially those who are 25, I am still figuring out life.  I'm not sure always what it holds.  I'm not always the biggest fan of not knowing.  I was the kid at 12, when I accepted the fact that I could not stop from developing and had to accept my childhood was all but over, I sat down and wrote out "the plan" you know all the things I would do and the places I would go and the money I would make. The irony of all that is the one thing I never set out to do at 12 I have done.  I fell in love. That was not on the plan.  That was never the plan but again as we all know life doesn't like plans.



I don't regret falling in love, nor marrying my best friend but I do regret facing the reality that "plans" for life don't work... I miss the security of it all.  The innocents of a 12 year old deciding that by the time I was 25 I would have finished medical school and between internships I would be traveling around Europe as a model. HEY, before you start laughing at the idea of 5' 6" me modeling remember I was twelve and didn't know when I would stop growing nor the idea of being a surgeon and model don't quite go hand in hand... In my mind I could do those and star on Broadway with no issues...

Ah, the energy of youth?

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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Long time, No right

I have two strong philosophies in my life:
What's the point in doing something if you don't REALLY do it.
Failure can only be achieved if you stop trying.



Probably comes from my hilarious and seriously extreme father or maybe even my matter of fact OCD mother but whatever the cause I don't like to do things part way.  I like to throw myself out there.  No one gets it right the first time and if they do it's a fluke.  Everyone like to quote Albert Einstien or Thomas Edison with their famous success only brought on by continued efforts after defeat after defeat.  I say look at your own life: I don't care who you are there is something in your life that you tried once and it didn't go well and you kept trying and you may not have had a roaring success but at least an improvement.



Take for instance brussel sprouts.  For as long as I can remember I have hated brussel sprouts.  They are like mini cabbages and taste worse.  It had been 12 years since I last tried a brussel sprout and I have this thing that if I haven't tried it in 3 years and someone offers it to me I will try it again.  Just a bit ago brussel sprouts popped up at my in-law's dinner table.  I watched in horror as the veggie bowl was passed around.  My noise crinkling up in disgust as I thought over the slimy texture and the horrid stench of my childhood rememberings.  All the same I followed my rule and I put what my family calls a "No thank you" helping, my parents rule was we had to eat everything that was offered but that was the get out jail free card: they didn't care how much we had.  After 12 years of postponing this moment, of dreaded memories... they weren't that bad.  Don't get me wrong , they are still not my favorite but I could eat them with little to no issue... more than I can say for fried okra!

Point:

Though a silly example you get my drift.  I look for encouragement not from others.  My point is that I will take joy in my little success.  There is more than one right way to do life.  There is more than one right way to do photography.

I have been discouraged.  I lacked wind in my sails.  I put myself out there and got only criticism.

Now don't get me wrong: I litterally love constructive/instructive criticism it is a great way to learn and a great way to know exactly what you need to work on.  But if someone tells you "your haircut sucks"... not super helpful.

Application:

If someone offers you criticism without direction: water on a ducks back!  "Bitches be crazy" to quote a less then awesome The Heartbreak Kid.

"If you only do what you know you can do - you never do much."
- Tom Krause


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