Waiting to Exhale
Raise your hand if you feel like you can finally breathe again.
Real talk? I went to bed crying Tuesday night. Because the race was so close I was not confident Biden would win. And it really hurt my soul that the race was close at all.
How? Why? I've said it before, and will likely say it again, but I do not understand how he has as much support as he does.
How can his followers be so blind to his crimes against humanity? Or just be indifferent to it.
Just because they are not personally impacted by his actions (which I could likely argue against that anyway) does not mean they don't happen. Why is this so difficult for people to grasp?
But, as I said before, I'm exhausted from trying to get people to care. I won't stop trying, I promise. But it is exhausting.
I don't know about you but I was glued to my phone for the rest of the week. Luckily work was busy busy busy but I would still grab my phone to see if more results were in every time I had to wait for something to upload.
I was in a funk for days.
And then. Yesterday I woke up to the best IM from my friend Alexandra in Munich. To clarify, she is not an ex-pat. She is a German that has been watching this race.
The election was called. Biden will be the 46th President of the United States.
This time it was tears of relief and joy. It's finally over.
As you know, the last 5 years or so I have been incredibly lucky and have travelled quite a bit. I have friends all over. And it is true, the world is celebrating along with us.
When the majority of the planet is celebrating you losing your job, that should really be an eye opener for you.
I am well aware we still have approximately two months left of this administration. I know he will not accept defeat willingly. I've heard the rallying cries of the few Trump supporters I had in my feed (and promptly dumped).
But there is light at the end of the tunnel and that is enough for me for now.
My expectations for Biden are not high. He has an impossible mess to clean up and I feel certain that will be used against him by his detractors. But I do believe that at his heart he wants to make America a better place. And that he will actually try to make that happen.
And that's enough for me. I wish him well.
For the record, I also wished Trump well when he won. I was devastated by his election but I desperately wanted him to prove me wrong. I wanted him to actually be a good President.
Spoiler alert: he wasn't.
Also can we take a moment to appreciate the press conference held by Trump's team at Four Seasons Landscaping? I mean, not even The Onion could come up with something that good. As if that wasn't good enough, it was next to an Adult book store.
Come on. Who really thinks that was an accident? A staffer has to have done that on purpose, right?
But also the fact that they showed up, looked around and said, yeah. Ok. This will work. This time the tears streaming down my face are from laughter.
Switching gears...
Shadow has completely accepted me as her own now. She sometimes sleeps with me at night and will frequently hop on my desk to demand loving during the day. She's a sweet cat. But twice last week she peed on the bath mat (yes, we caught her in the act). Since this was not her normal behavior, Rob took her to the vet to rule out illness being a factor.
In case you are not a cat person, when a fully litter box trained cat suddenly stops using the litter box, it can be a sign that they are in some degree of pain. Either that or behavioral. And since she seems to be accepting me more each day, we ruled out behavioral.
Vet couldn't get a urine sample so she got an antibiotic shot and was sent home.
Another room is complete...at least until we replace the sliding door and floors (5 year plan). The breakfast nook is done!
Here is the before reminder taken from the original listing...
And here is the glorious after...
Here's what I did...
The table is the one I had in my apartment - purchased at Living Spaces last year. I found the chairs on Wayfair and stained the legs to make them a little more match-y. They were unfinished wood. The molded plastic seats are the most perfect shade of pink. The chairs were reasonably priced but came without the hardware to attach the legs to the seats. So that was nice.
We waited about 2 months for the replacement hardware to arrive. And they only sent enough for one chair. Rather than waiting another two months or longer for more replacements, we just went out and bought the necessary pieces so we could finally assemble them.
*By we I mean Rob.
The curtains were found on Amazon and I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. I mean they are the perfect MCM vintage vibe I was going for. We removed the broken blinds and added sheers. They aren't perfect for privacy but the windows they face always have the blinds closed so I'm not overly concerned.
Also we don't exactly walk around the kitchen naked.
I still need to paint the custom cabinet you can see peeking in the right corner - I'll get to it soon. And I would love to find the right rug for the nook (and kitchen) but I'm not in a rush.
We also finally got the new furniture delivered for the movie room. If you are wondering why I am not posting a photo, buckle up.
The sofa arrived late Wednesday night. Like 10:30 late. It's fine - we were just excited to finally have it. And it is a beast. It takes up most of the room but since we are only watching movies in there, it's all good.
It's actually so big that we decided the end table we also purchased couldn't stay so we returned it.
Since it was late, I thought I would wait until the next morning to take a pic and share it. So, Thursday morning, around 8:30, I pop into the movie room to take a photo of my gorgeous new sofa.
You know. The one I have literally waited two months for?
The one with the custom fabric?
The one that completely sets the design for the entire room?
The one with a GIANT PUDDLE OF PEE on the cushion?
Yeah. That one.
Yep. Turns out, Shadow still wasn't feeling well and being a cat, she decided that the most effective way to communicate that would be to FUCKING PEE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NEW SOFA.
Y'all. I for REAL contemplated cat murder that morning.
To be clear - I have never considered pets disposable. I have always found ways to work around their quirks. I'm still working through issues with Shadow clawing my new living room rug but at least she's quit doing it to the carpet. I don't like her tearing up the rug but that can be much more easily replaced than the carpet. Or furniture.
But Thursday? I wanted her out of my sight. She could have literally peed on anything else in the house (save our bed) and while I would have been upset, I would have moved on more quickly.
I'll remind you, that sofa was in this house for less than 10 hours. And it was ruined.
Rob tried to take her back to the same vet but they suggested we give the shot a few more days to work. Wouldn't even see her. I thought we should get a second opinion. So Rob found another vet and left her there for a few hours. They confirmed that even though she had the antibiotic shot a couple of days before, she was still showing a pretty intense infection. So they pumped her full of more drugs, gave him some to administer at home, and changed to a different food.
So she was sick and she was just trying to tell us. I get it. She's a cat.
That only made me want to murder her a little less.
In the meantime, we took the cushion cover and inner layer apart. I was concerned about trying to clean them myself because I didn't want to risk voiding the warranty.
Guess what isn't covered by the warranty?
So we've been trying to clean it ourselves. I figure at this point, the worst case scenario is we ruin it further and have to replace it. Maybe we can get lucky and they would allow us to just replace the cushion. And if not, at least it is a sectional and we could have just replaced that one piece. Still costly, but it's not like I can leave a pee stained cushion in the room.
Luckily the cushion had a down layer between the outer cover and the foam. The pee didn't make it all the way to the foam layer so that part is still good. The down layer is essentially like a down duvet for the foam cushion.
Susie found me some cleaning tips on line and I have done them all. We also (again, we meaning Rob) went to Living Spaces and bought their cleaning kit. I have washed the down layer with Oxyclean once, one load with distilled white vinegar and bleach, and once with detergent. We've let it air dry for a couple of days and today I ran it through the dryer on the lowest setting twice. It's still a little damp so I am going to let it air dry a bit longer.
Rob used the cleaning kit to clean the outer layer and I don't see a stain or smell anything so fingers crossed, it might be all good.
And Shadow still lives.
If we have eradicated the smell and manage to put everything back together, the next post will likely be about the movie room. And if not? Well I guess my next post will be about something else.
At the end of the day, I just want to reiterate that I don't mind if my friends have a different political point of view than me. My problem was and continues to be about Trump and how horrible he is. How his entire administration was fueled by hate and exclusion.
And for the record, I personally have no problem discussing politics. But here's the catch - I don't think human rights should be a political bargaining chip. Let's disagree on how best to help the economy or how much control the government should have. But basic human rights should not be up for debate.
I long for a country that really and truly believes all men and women are created equal. Where citizens are free to worship as they see fit. Where no one tells a man or woman what they can or cannot do with their own body. A country that listens to science and facts above opinion.
Isn't that what everyone should want?
#election2020 #bidenharris2020 #bluewave2020 #86451103 #brightnewfuture