"free time"

I'm so glad that I got to start my summer break last week. I mean, with cutting a hole in the wall, painting the entire upstairs, ordering a countertop, getting the countertop in and it being the wrong size and having to send it back, pulling off baseboards, emptying rooms for flooring to be put in, contacting and booking a contractor to put floors in, having studio work get crazy busy, and keeping up with cooking, dishes, and laundry… I've just had so much free time. 

Gah!

I'm not whining, I'm really not. Okay, maybe a little bit. But, seriously, I think most of my stress stems from my ability to not deal with with things that are unorganized. And my house is a dysfunctional mess right now. There are also a lot of stresses being added onto of the OCD that's making me an unstable, irrational mess. 

We've put a lot of effort and not a small amount of money into all of this and it seems like things just keep going wrong. Even if it's small things, like spending a little more on the 'good' tape and then it peeling off your freshly painted paint. Or having the person before you paint a freaking deep, royal, purple room with brown crowning and baseboards sponged with gold. Gold. I had to prime the room three times. THREE TIMES! Or ordering a custom countertop with very specific specifications only to have it come in and be 1/8 of an inch too long, and then mess up your newly created hole in the wall while trying to put it in, and then the Lowe's people judging you for throwing a fit over it because it's, "only 1/8 of an inch too long." I cut a hole in my wall for this thing! I placed a custom order, I have a piece of paper that you consider a contract and a receipt. Yes, 1/8 of an inch is 1/8 of an inch longer than what I ordered and 1/8 of an inch TOO LONG! Grrr. 

However, the good news is I no longer have a purple room (what will we call that room now?), a new countertop is coming in, floors have been purchased, and a contractor will be here tomorrow to put in the floors. Whew. There is light at the end of the tunnel. By the end of this month, I just hope it's all over with. 

I still have the whole cleaning-out-my-entire-house thing. I'm working on it next week. I scheduled our little city special pick up for May 23rd. That gives me a few weeks to collect all the junk and remove it from my house. Also, preparing a room for my sister to move into. Removing cluttered bull crap from the house is part of preparing her room though.

The studio has picked up! That's definitely a good thing. But, oy, so much work and time. Especially weddings - doing final cuts and edits takes forever! 

That's another good thing though. I had to be at my studio at 8 o'clock this morning for a meeting and then a photo shoot and then a final selecting/editing on some wedding pictures. It took like all day. And it was fun! So much fun. Man, that's what work should be like. Maybe it is true… that whole thing about loving what you do and you'll never work a day in your life - or something like that. Don't get me wrong, some things about it are still tedious, time-consuming, frustrating pits. But, even still, I enjoy it.