Weekend Highlights, literally

So, I didn't even mention that I was at the hairdressers because I was revamping my highlights. Wound up having a significant portion of my hair hacked off too. I really like it. I think it makes it a lot bouncier, which suits my personality (on the 10 1/2 days per month that I'm actually in a good mood). I don't think that Scott is crazy about the shortness, but the nice thing is that when I like my hair enough then I don't need the validation at all. It's VERY unusual for me to not need the validation, so that means I really like the hair.

We went on a double date last night with my friend Karey and her boyfriend Kevin. We went to a bar for karaoke and I'm really starting to realize how old I am when I go out. After a while, the loud music and all the smoke really gets on me. And I'm still a social smoker, but barely. I smoke just enough that I feel silly for still doing it. But, I digress. None of us wound up singing, just wound up going back to Scott's place to hang out and play drunk Jenga apparently. That was weird. I was essentially mocked for not having participated in too many drinking games. And now here I am going back to college and still missing out on all that!

Today, I went over and helped my friends Dave and Jen (sorry guys, I know you prefer the full-length version of your names but it's just not going to happen from me) try to get their house ready to be moved into next weekend. I did very little but they were apparently grateful even for the pathetically small amount of stuff I did. That's what was so hard for me when other people tried to help me do things in my house. I knew they wanted to be helpful and I knew I wanted their help but if I had to tell them exactly where I wanted everything and how I wanted it all the time, then I might as well do it myself. You feel like you WANT to help but you feel so powerless because no matter how you do someone else's stuff, it's just not going to be to their complete satisfaction. Still, they made me actively pine to have a house that I was attached to and wanted to fix up. I instantly began coveting a house project. It's ridiculous. I have at least 10 cosmetic things I could do around here and that's just from the top of my head. But, I don't love this house and I never will. It just doesn't feel like HOME. I don't walk in the door and breathe a sigh of relief... I wonder how soon I can get out and do something again. It's sad. I always thought that I would wind up being a putterer. Becoming an HGTV addict and learning how to do things and so forth. I never did.

So, even knowing that it's within my power to do all of the stuff that they are doing around their house, I still can't get motivated to do it here. I do know that I will never buy a house again that I don't love enough to take care of. I think that Scott has the putterer desire too and has done some minor things around his house, but he also hasn't done as many things as he would like to do. I don't think it goes to the bizarre level of him not being attached to his house, because he seems to like it a lot -- I'm not really sure what his reason is. Finances, perhaps -- because that's part of mine. Plus, I always envisioned myself puttering WITH someone. Getting into home projects together and learning how to do things and then actually doing them.

It's love, Home Depot style.

I think that the advent of all the fixer-up shows that focus on couples (Trading Spaces, While You Were Out and Designing for the Sexes to name a few) has created this vision that that's what domestic bliss really means. Plus I grew up watching my parents do things together... Well, my mom nagged my dad into doing various projects and he just went along.

It's funny because even though Home Depot is the "man store", it's creation was really necessitated by a bunch of women bugging their significant others to do projects around the house...

Anyways, I'm rambling into overtime now and Carnivale will be on any minute. It's still really weird and I still don't really get it. I imagine they'll be getting ready to cancel it by the time I figure out if I really like it or not!

HP