Everybody hurts sometimes

Just makes me start singing a little R.E.M...

Such a downer of a title to this post, but it was somewhat of a downer weekend in some respects, but thankfully, not all.

Friday I went straight from work to Home Depot to help my friend Katie pick out paint. It was a really funny conversation mostly because Katie is somewhat terrified of color and I see no point in painting everything taupe. So, I told her I would help her pick out new colors and even help paint, but if I'm putting any kind of taupe on my paintbrush, I'm out. Of course taupe has it's place, but considering that her couches are taupe and the existing wall-color was cream (or "nicotine yellow" as we so lovingly called it), she needed some "oomph" to her walls. Anyhow, that said, I talked her into a great spa-like grey-blue color that was still very neutral, but complimented her throw pillows, hardwoods and brought out the beauty of her crown moulding. I say "talker her into", but in all honesty, she was excited about it once I showed her all the different color-combinations that would go with it should she ever decide to change her accent colors. Anyway, after we selected all our swatches and paint supplies, we headed out and enjoyed the rest of the evening sitting outside of Maxximo Jo's talking (I'm going to call it Moxy's though - it's just less of a mouthful). We had a LOT to talk about, and I'll be honest, most of it was really hard, challenging conversation about choices, but that's what friends are for and regardless of the weight of the topic, I really enjoyed our time together.

The next morning Stacey & I put on our paint clothes and went over to tackle Katie's living room. Goodbye nicotine yellow, hello spa grey and bison brown. I wish I had before/after pics, but we took those with Katie's camera, so I'll see if I can get a few. Basically she has a beautiful traditional brick fireplace with white moulding and the wall around it was seriously chalkboard green. Next to the fireplace is a beautiful built in bookcase that had white shelves, but was the lovely cream color - as were the rest of the walls in the room. So, we painted the walls the spa grey (which did so much more for her white crown moulding than the cream), painted the fireplace wall a dark chocolate brown and painted the book case white to match the crown moulding. With her hardwood floors, taupe couches and grey/blue/brown throw pillows and shabby chic accent furniture - her room was transformed and I'm pretty sure Katie almost cried when she saw the finished product. It never ceases to amaze me how much a coat of paint can transform a room.

That evening Stacey & I went to see Nights in Rodanthe - which I would now like to rename Nights in Hell. That was a cruel, cruel movie. I sobbed my eyes out and found nothing redeeming to pick-me-up at the end. Who makes mean movies like that?! Sheesh! If you need to be depressed for a bit, go see it, otherwise it's not high on my list of recommendations.

Sunday I had a friend in tears standing at my door. I made her lunch, we talked a lot, and eventually I'm pretty sure there were some smiles and laughter. Later on we went to visit another friend for a bit before calling it a day. I went home, worked on a few things, and found myself scrubbing my bathroom, crying my eyes out! Let me just say I am NOT one to cry very often, but apparently I just had an overwhelming sense of emotion. I cried for my friend that I talked with Friday night, I cried for my friend that I shared lunch with Sunday morning, and I cried for myself for all the reasons - big & small - that tears needed to be shed...and then I was done and I was fine. It's true - women are confusing and complicated and I am not going to deny it. Regardless of all of that, I ended the night talking to another friend and laughing pretty hard...so it came around full circle once again. I would just prefer to avoid the crying part of that circle - I think I'm good for a while now.