rock the casbah

well. another non-accomplishing day. on a grand scale, of course. it's not like i sat around doing nothing all day (which would've been just fine with me, but noooooo). my mom stayed home from work (for like the 2nd time in 20 years - who does that??) sick with some head cold. she kept whining and whining because she's in pain so i helped her paint her bedroom a little bit. i don't mind painting, but i only like it when 1) there are two massively different colors so you can easily see the new paint sliding off the paint brush and 2) in big chunks. this isn't paint by number, people! i'm not painting a picture to take home for mother's day. i have no patience for small painting. i'd much rather wave a magic wand (read: pay someone else) and have the paint magically appear in tiny nooks and crannies. but i really do like a pretty painted wall. everyone apartment i have ever lived in has "had" to maintain white walls. it's nice to add a splash of color. i definitely recommend it, especially if you can get someone else to do it.

at one point, i had to go to the store to get some more paint. and this is weird to me: the store, on the outside says "ace hardware" but when you go inside, there is a handwritten sign at the register that says "make checks payable to tooltime." which i instantly thought was a joke. ha ha. tool time. tim allen. detroit. home improvement. ha ha good one. but then i saw an actual sign that said something about tool time. huh?? anyway, apparently there is a tool time in fargo. more to the point. so i go to the store and tell the guy i want "breadstick" color. he looks at me incredulously because i didn't have the paint sample, i just knew the color. "we changed our provider, so the color has changed," he says to me. "ok, but i was just here." "yeah, but we changed." i looked around. nothing had changed in the 3 days since i had been there. "i was here two days ago." "oh" was all he replied. so he finds breadstick in the system and prints the label. i walk around doing nothing and then get the paint and go. when i get home, my mom is like, "this looks grayer." i tish tished her and told her it looked fine. it wasn't until she had painted 5 panels that we realized - it really was NOT the same color. i looked at the lid - it read breadstick and the same paint swab number as the other can. BUT the "color proportions" or whatever they are were TOTALLY different. how does that change? i really don't get how someone could screw that up. so i'll have to go back tomorrow to get it fixed.

except...

i don't have a car. i drove the car to the ... what are those places called? automotive repair store? too long. the shop. yeah, i took the car into the shop. it didn't overheat during the 1/2 mile drive there. always a good sign. except now it's like an episode of house. we don't know what's wrong, so we (read: the mechanic) has to diagnose the problem. i told him all about the symptoms and he wrote down everything i said! it must've been a really big deal. he called at the end of the day and isn't sure what's wrong with it. they're going to drive it tomorrow to see if they can recreate the problem. i'm pretty sure i know what happened. some CIA or FBI agent has confused me with a rogue agent and they are trying to "disappear" me by having me die in a burning car - at my own hand maybe. they could also make it look like an accident. or not. and it didn't work! i'm too smart for them. i have outwitted them once again! or - i have outwitted them for the first time and will again! (someday) i'm pretty sure there is some curse or something about me driving because the other day i was in the car with homie and we were waiting in the drive thru and the car started to overheat. i was like, "wtf! why is every car i'm in overheating??" so we took it to jiffy lube and got an oil change and all is well. once again defeated the enemy! but we have no idea where he will strike next. denim denim denim.

before it got dark, i took out my newly souped-up bike for a ride. i rode all the way to longfellow and then made my way back a long way. i couldn't belive how far i had ridden and in such time. i totally rock the casbah! and i'm sure i looked hot in my bike helmet. i have decided to take the baskets (paniers) off my bike until i actually need them. tomorrow i plan to go to the post office and i will actually need them. i might ride up to the grocery store, as well. just so i can use the baskets. don't worry. they aren't dorky baskets. i make them work. i'm about to fall asleep.