Damnit.

Why are plumbers so freakin' expensive?

In other news, I'm on my way to having a fixed front door lock. Just one more trip to Ace tonight for a different kind of screw. Then it will be time to tackle the kitchen door.

In addition to having Home Improvement ADD, I think I'm starting to get Home Improvement Guilt, or something. I imagine it's how most new mothers feel- like nothing you do is good enough, like there's something better you could always be doing, like all the other mothers are looking at you and thinking, "She's a horrible mother!" I feel this way about my house. I've really let my garden go, because I'm LAZY and hate watering (also, it probably has something to do with working 50 hours a week). I've killed a few mum plants, some vines, and even some bushes. I can excuse it by saying, "It's horrible for the environment to waste water on plants!" And while this is true, it also makes for an ugly garden. The whole thing is just TOO MUCH to take care of. I feel overwhelmed just looking at it from inside my house. It doesn't help that my next door neighbors have an absolutely stunning garden and yard, complete with koi pond, hand-built gazebo and arbor, and window boxes. Even though I've always made fun of it, I can totally see how people get roped into competing with their neighbors on things like this. It's easy to feel inadequate! I know I shouldn't care what my neighbors think. But I do wonder if they're mumbling under their breath, "Wow, she's really let that place go..."

I could also use this failure of mine as an opportunity to turn my backyard into something *I* want. I'm not crazy about the boring design, or the complete random mish-mash of flowers scattered here and there. I want something more environmentally friendly. Something more suited to Oklahoma's climate. Something easy to take care of.

Sometimes it is hard.

The first entry to "My House is My Boyfriend," this here blog, will be a documentation of a sad, sad evening.

Being a single, female, YOUNG home-owner is overwhelming, most of the time. Sometimes even the smallest of tasks turn into an ordeal. And to someone used to having a man around to fix that or do this, it's doubly difficult. This does not contradict the fact that I am very independent and always have been. So yes, I can be terrified of my mortgage, frustrated I don't have a man around to just FIX THE DAMN THING, *and* be disappointed for not just bucking up and figuring it out myself, all at the same time. It's a triumvirate of failure, in my Type A/ISTJ/Virgo perfectionist world.

Tonight the task was to hang my new curtains. I bought some awesome new curtains on sale at Urban Outfitters, that perfectly match the 50s/pop art vibe I'm trying to go for in my living room:



Pretty awesome, huh? I love them. Anyways, I went to Home Depot this afternoon to buy some hardware to hang them with. The "invisible rod" I bought to hang them on from CB2 didn't come with hardware. I knew I needed drywall anchors of some sort, because my built-in-1950 walls are pretty brittle and don't support much weight with plain ole screws or nails.

I brought my friend Randy with me, because I don't know, I feel better in Home Depot with a male by my side. Yes, I am really a feminist. I promise. Randy's an engineering student, so I figured he would know his stuff when it came to...drywall anchors. I don't know. He insisted I buy this kind I'd never used before. The anchor part was metal...The little instructional picture on the side of the box showed the whole thing being hammered in, and the screw being unscrewed afterwards so you could hang something on it. Alright.

Well, that didn't exactly work. I don't know why. Hammering the entire thing completely destroyed the little holes for the screwdriver on top of the screw (like I know what those are called), so it was pretty damn hard to pull the screw back out so I could hang the bracket on it. So then I tried hammering the whole thing in with the bracket already screwed to it, and nope. Wouldn't work. I ended up pulling one out of the wall completely, so now I have another giant gaping hole in my poor, poor old walls. After already patching and painting over holes earlier this afternoon.

Day 3 without curtains. Hopefully tomorrow evening I can finally figure it out. After I call another boy I know for advice. Hah.