A few variations...

Variation One:

A project is FINITO! It's a good feeling to check something off the list. My dining room has gone through a serious makeover, from drab white to some color. I like it, and I'm ready and raring to go on to the next project. It's good to have my dining room back, and to be DONE with something!

Variation Two:

Today, I went to the Allegan Antique Market. It's a carnival/estate sale/museum all wrapped up in one, all for $4.00. It can't be beat, as far as I'm concerned. I've been going to these things since I was a kid, and they're always fun. You have 400 dealers there, so basically, it's as if you're going to 10,000 garage sales, but someone's sifted through all the crap for you, and brought just the good stuff to one place for your convenience, with the benefit of Elephant Ears and hot dogs around the corner. What's better than that? OK, there's still a lot of crap, but all in all, you see some really cool stuff. You have the chance to literally touch history, and even buy a piece of it if you'd like. The antique dealers are some real characters, and so are the shoppers. It's a good place to people watch. And sometimes, you can find some really good deals. I often wonder what items from today will be hanging around at antique sales 100 years from now. We live in a pretty disposable society, and it's hard to imagine all the cheapie-joe plastic junk we live with now having much staying power down the road. But for now, I like to revisit history a few times a year, and maybe do a little dickerin' and dealin' on the side.

Variation Three:

Let's talk about last night. I was sorta bitchy to a clerk at Meijer. Ok, I was a jackass. Yup, a total jerk to the poor girl. I was kind of in a bad mood, for no real good reason. Maybe the fire alarm at the movies set me off. But no, that wasn't really the reason. I was just an ass.

So Megan and I thought we'd get some ice cream and cookies after our movie date. It was her "junk food" day, and mine too (like the 134 days previous), so we swung by Meijer's on the way home. We went through the self check out lane, and for some reason, it didn't read one of the items. The clerk gave me some instruction, which was fine, but then she came over and hovered around us, telling me what to do. That annoyed me--thanks for telling me what buttons to push, sister. People who instruct me in things I already know annoy the heck out of me, and she was no exception. At one point, I said to her, "Um, I've been using these things for years. I think I know how they operate." She was still there, hovering right over my shoulder, and saw the upside down paint samples that I picked up in the paint section. She reached down, grabbed them up, saying, "what are these?"

"Paint samples."

"Oh! Really?"

What came out of her mouth as she turned them over was an, "ewww...brown."

I rolled my eyes at this.

"So painting something, are we? What room is it?"

"The living room."

"OK...let's see. Let's pick you out a color. Hmm...so....tell me....what color is your furniture?"

This was said with the tone of authority of a Martha Stewart wannabe, a virago pretender who wanted to impart her interior decorating wisdom to a guy, who she probably assumed has no clue about decorating. Her tone, her overall chatty-kathyness, annoyed me to no end. Now get this: I actually reached over and pulled the paint cards from her hands, as she blathered on and on about paint schemes. I had no desire to be "Mr. Nice," or tell her anything about myself, or my furniture. I didn't want to pretend at all, so I took the paint samples from her and placed them in the bag, ignoring her completely. She actually reached in after them, to point out the color she would pick. She told me her choice with a desperate urgency, trying to get some semblance of a response from me, but I was immovable. I grabbed the receipt, and utterly failed to acknowledge her presence as I headed for the door. She clambored after me, "I know I'm crazy...I just can't help myself." In short, I was jackass Dan.

I'm usually not like that. I don't want to be that person, and I fear the older I get, the less patient and charitable I become. I'm beginning to see more signs of it, and I don't like it. That's something I really need to work on.

But man oh man....she REALLY annoyed me. She was all bottled up with pretty much everything I don't like about people. Last night, I was "misanthrope Dan," and I guess you could say she was a test of my patience and charity. I failed miserably.

However, the ice cream was tasty.