Try a Little Something New… — November 13, 2009

I surprised myself this week! 

 When we had our small flood and got our new carpet, the people who took up the old carpet and helped move our furniture also scratched up the paint on our walls pretty badly.  We mentioned it to our landlord in hopes that he’d be willing to touch up the paint for us, but he seemed he didn’t care, so I decided to take care of it myself!  The entire place has needed touching up for awhile now anyway, and it was getting on my nerves even before the carpet incident.   I hate waiting on other people to do stuff for me!  I was just scared because I had never done anything like that before and figured it would be a huge difficult hassle.

 But, push came to shove, and it was time for me to learn.  I went to Sherwin Williams for my paint since it is so close to our apartment that I figured I could easily  run over there and they could redo the color if need be.  Walking out of the store with the can of paint gave me some trepidation….I was locked into the project now! 

 So, I got started on Tuesday evening.  I was just going to experiment a little bit and see what I was getting myself into.  I surprised myself!  I liked it!  It was actually very soothing.  I turned on my “Glee” soundtrack, turned it up as much as I thought the neighbors would tolerate, and sat back and enjoyed the paint fumes, hehehe.  Hours passed before I really even knew it. 

 I didn’t really get finished until Wednesday morning – I got most of it done on Tuesday, and then got up early on Wednesday to finish it.  The whole project took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but I am very pleased with the results.  We don’t have scratches and marks all over the walls anymore!  That’s pretty exciting since I’ve been staring at some of those marks (with my ”angry eyes”) for years.  hehe!  It’s certainly not professional grade, but the apartment wasn’t painted that perfectly to begin with.  Even better, now that I know how easy this is, I’ll just run around touching up various spots all the time!  This is going to be great. 

 In other news, David and I tried out a new restaurant last night.  We went out to celebrate our dating anniversary that passed us up this week.  (We try to celebrate everything we possibly can!)  We went to Longview and tried Newk’s Express Cafe.  It’s only been open for a few months at most, and I’ve been really curious to try it out.  I know it’s a chain, but I’m not sure how widespread they are.  The only other one I’ve ever seen is in Shreveport. 

 I had read somewhere that the owners of Newk’s were the original owners of McAlister’s Deli. Once they got McAlister’s up and running, they sold that business and then decided to start Newk’s.  That got me pretty excited.  I love McAlister’s!  They have all kinds of good stuff.  It also got me excited about Newk’s sweet tea, since McAlister’s has made themselves famous (according to them) for their tea. 

So, basically, Newk’s is a fancier version of McAlister’s.  They have the same type of food – salads, soups, sandwiches, etc…but with a fancy “twist” to everything.  David got a bowl of soup and a roast beef sandwich that he liked.  I had a toasted pimiento cheese sandwich.  WOW, it was good.  It was homemade pimiento cheese with tomatoes, and then toasted so it was warm and the cheese was melty.  The cheese was a really sharp flavor too. I liked it!  The only real disappointment was the tea.  It was just a little sad, especially considering my expectations.  I should get water next time!

 But here’s the thing: my goodness it was dark in there!  The ordering area was fine, but the seating area was like sitting in the dark.  There were some spots over by the drink area where it was nearly too dark to read the labels on the fountain drink machine.  I kept looking up at the bulb over our table, and the sad little filament just barely had the slightest glow to it.  Earlier this week, Shane and I went to Olive Garden, and it was dark in there too!  I was sitting in kind of a corner, and my area was so dimly lit!  It was weird.

 So, that made me scared to say anything to David.  That was two nights in a row in restaurants that just seemed dark.  Now, I’m all about embracing my oldness, but I want to embrace it on my terms!  I want to already know that I’m being old before I mention something and then find out that I’m the only one with the problem.  hehehe.  Am I getting too old to adjust to dim lighting?  hehehehe.  I finally got up the nerve to ask him and he said that it was dark in there to him too. WHEW!  Of course, the fact that he’s 10 years older than I am doesn’t lend much credibility to assuaging my oldness.  hehehe. 

 Then I started talking to him about how Olive Garden was the same way. His answer? “Don’t you have a flashlight on your keychain?  You could have used that to read the menu.”

 OH NO.  no no no no no.  I am not ready for that!  I am not going to be the little old lady in the corner with the flashlight!  “Hey sonny, I can’t read this menu!  When did you start making those words so tiny?”  hehehe.  Maybe we’ve uncovered one of the reasons old people like to eat early.  You can hold your menus up to the windows to see!!

 There are so many good things going on right now! 

 -Shane and I went walking this week and did hills!  We went to a pretty neighborhood here in town that is full of hills and we walked several of them.  That was fun, and I was very happy with the way I felt the next day.  We will definitely do that again.

 -The “O” magazine with Ellen on the cover came out this week!  Everyone needs to get it.  The episode of Oprah where she interviewed Ellen was great too.

-David and I think we have finally made up our minds on our new furniture purchases (replacements from the small flood.)  I am excited.  Shopping for that was moderately fun and moderately stressful.  Now we just have to figure out good timing where we can disrupt our lives again for as short a time as possible.

 -We finally got our couch cushions redone!  We had new foam put in them.  Wow, it is amazing.  The couch is like brand new.  I can’t believe how tall it is now.  We should have done that a long time ago.

 -The “Glee” soundtrack is wonderful!  I love the fact that Kristin Chenoweth is on it.  I also love that “Defying Gravity” is on there too.

 -Next weekend:  Tim comes to Marshall!  He and Shane and I have a full slate of activities planned, including seeing “New Moon.”  It’s going to be an amazing time!