Jonelle and I had a seriously burly day. We got ready as fast as we could to leave, and left the farm at 10:30 with the two littlest children, a girl almost 2 and Caleb, almost 6 weeks.
In Charlottesville, I withdrew cash at the bank.
We went to Lowe’s and had a fabulous time buying about 15 assorted things. Normally I wouldn't think of a stop at a big box store as the highlight of a day, but because we had the littles, everyone—not just the women but male employees and scruffy men—gave us big smiles and tried to see the baby’s face. Caleb nursed while I sat on the floor and Jonelle and two employees picked out tiles and the setting mortar and grout and tools. The first person to help us was a young lady, and she was soon joined by a young man.
When I asked the young lady where to find a particular part, she said, “I’m a girl. I don’t know what that stuff is called. We’ll ask him.” And he first showed us a photo of his 6-week-old on his phone, and then answered our questions for every other item. Aisle 12, aisle 16, aisle 17, aisle 24. It was brilliant. We knew, then, exactly where to go.
Jonelle and I had talked earlier about Virginians, and how I thought the people were a friendly bunch. “Yes, people here are friendlier,” Jonelle said.
The particular part I needed was a nut and bolt. Quickly stymied in finding the identical part, we asked for help from a cheerful man with an accent: “We are females and are clueless. We need help!” He gave us a little tutorial on how to locate the proper bolts (match them into the guides on the wall, count the number of threads) and how to buy them (put them in a bag and mark the quantity and part number). We also needed a piece to hold up the shelves in the armoire, and he helped us again. He was still holding the final brass shelf-holder and I laughed and said, “Yes, you probably don’t want to keep that as a reminder of our time here,” and he laughed and said, “Oh, I don’t need that to remember you.”
He was wearing a ring, and we had our babies with us, so was that outrageous flirting, or just good cheer? In any case, we left the store almost giddy with good experiences.
On to Whole Foods, where we again had happy interactions with clerks.
Then we located Michael’s in the local shopping center. I had found some art and wanted to frame it. Jonelle went in first and I stayed in the car to feed the baby and eat a sandwich.
Picking frames and mats is not easy, so it was really helpful to have her there. And then the pieces were all 25% off! We left feeling really good about our experience.
So then we hit the walking mall to get Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint at a new store in town. After paying $2.75 to park, we had an hour.
This was the first sour note to the day. Chalk Paint is not the same as chalkboard paint (which is cool in its own way). Chalk Paint is a thick paint that does not require sanding before painting, nor between coats. I had really set my heart on a particular blue, and they had pulled the last can from the shelves just 20 minutes before. (Why they mentioned this—I don’t know. It didn’t help, but instead made me frustrated that we hadn't come earlier.) A nice red was my back-up color. That was out of stock. Grey was a distant third. That was out of stock. So was the burgundy.
We briefly considered driving to the next store, but it would have been several more hours in the car and, actually, they were out of the blue also.
Thanks be to God, Jonelle has an art background. She suggested combining two colors, a bright green and a solid navy, and those two, fingerpainted together, made an approximation of the color we wished for.
After buying the needed wax and a medium brush, we were out of there; a bit deflated, but pleased that we had the chance to move forward.
Eliana was getting ragged and Caleb was getting fussy, but we quickly stopped at the high-end lingerie shop. Jonelle was again a huge help, and getting the properly sized undergarments completely reshaped my body.
Hurry, then, to the car to avoid a ticket or towing. Caleb was fussy, but we didn’t want to pay $2.75 so I could sit there and feed him. I was going to stop at a local elementary school, done for the day, to feed him, but he was sleeping, so we drove on to the post office. He slept through that, and new homeopathic books had arrived.
Home again by 4pm, we found Phil, completely prostrated from chemical exposure the day before. It took quite some time for Jonelle and me to unload all the purchases, and Caleb slept through it all.
At 6:30, we received delivery of a beautiful dresser. One of the knobs had fallen off, but the owner found it and will mail it to me.
The weather was a magnificent, balmy 62, so we moved bags of clothes.
Then, after the children went to bed (slumber party again!), I worked on framing (most of the frames gave us fits: they would not work unless there were no mats, and even then … super tight. Some pictures I just used cardboard as a backing and taped it up.
The pieces I finished, though, were magnificent. I am so pleased!
Jonelle sanded the dresser down for a time, and then began to paint.
The Chalk Paint had been built up too much for us, so we were quite underwhelmed, verging on disgusted. If all that was promised was that we wouldn't have to sand, that would have been great news. But none of the other assurances came to pass.
Yes, the paint is thick and the brush chunky. Jonelle had a good time with it, at least for the first hour. The heavy brush did tire her out, after that. (I am not a painter. I tried a few brush strokes, but Caleb was fussy, so I didn’t do much. I would probably not do it again.)
But the “one, maybe two coats” reassurance did not prove to be our experience. Neither did the “ten minutes and dry” promise (we finally went to bed about two hours after the third coat, still waiting). We did get a fairly good amount of coverage, but the dresser took more than the cup of paint that the store suggested we might need.
Plus, because we hadn't had the cans premixed, we needed to get not only the color we desired but also the right quantity, because if we didn't mix the entire amount, we could never match it perfectly to do a bit more for touch up. Our first color was a bit too green (see foreground drawers), but the second coat was exactly the blue we were after (see background dresser).
Plus, we had received so many reassurances about how we don’t need to sand or prep, that when the paint dramatically threw into relief just how not flat the sanding job had been—it was a bit of a bummer all around.
But we ended the day well. Jonelle searched through the newly arrived homeopathic repertory and we talked through remedies for Caleb. He continues to be just uncomfortable, choking in the night, aspirating some of the reflux, wheezing, fussing, sometimes reaching full-blown panic. He is very sweet and not intentionally cranky. He just doesn’t feel good.
Jonelle suggested Calc carb, and after we discussed, I dosed him. Almost immediately he fell more deeply asleep. He did have a bit of a choke about an hour later, so I dosed again.
So the day was a mad rush, but good!
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