Feel Like Complaining

My first name is Karen, although I always went by my middle name while growing up. I have to use my first name for almost everything now though, like my business, banking, medical and all legal documents; I'm just not crazy about it.  When the Karen memes started, they were slightly amusing but now I hate them so much. The name is flung around to depict a woman who complains about service, and people doing what she doesn't deem appropriate. Believe it or not, the name has take many forms over the years. Dating back to 1815-1861 there was 'Miss Ann', slang for a white woman who was known for her whiteness and the status it conveyed, and did nothing to challenge the system. The name was used in the African-American community to depict someone (usually white) who was 'uppity'. Becky came around about 1990 and although she may not be as blatant about it, she is defensive, unaware, and ignorant about her whiteness.  Poor Karen has morphed into a white woman who calls...

I started my Thanksgiving stay at Steve's on Friday, a day earlier than planned. His in-laws were both hospitalized and they had planned to go there anyway, but wanted to leave early. They flew on stand-by so I had to do the same.  I went home yesterday to attempt to put up a small tree. We didn't do anything last year because of Abe but wanted to test it out and figured the smaller one would be better if it came crashing down.  Chico's been with us for over a week and was a real trooper when the carpet got laid. We had to hang out downstairs for 3 hours and he was pretty nervous at first because of the noise but he settled in pretty quick. I love this boy but he has gotten so needy. I am his #1 and he wants to be sitting on my lap all the time. If I'm busy he'll follow me around or just sit and stare at me. He won't go lie down to wait patiently, just makes me feel guilty. One day it was almost 5 hours until I finally sat down and he was just exhausted when he ...

The painting job was darn near painless. The owner is a type A personality and really didn't stop at all, moving at warp speed. His assistant was a little more meticulous. The first day they got most of it done in about 3 hours and the next day they finished up in 2. I have found a few areas that needed touching up but we had plenty of paint left over so it was no big deal.  I had to buy all new curtains after having just bought new ones recently in tan/brown. Abe loves having the other window free of blinds and he's made himself a highway, from his cat tower down to one window, behind the tv and to the other window. All furniture will be re-arranged and carpet will be in tomorrow! I won't show any more until everything is put back together, which could take awhile.  At first I wasn't too crazy about the gray and thought it looked too blue. We have enough blue around here. But it seemed to mellow into a gray and I like it now. Cleaning the fireplace is hard and I really...

It was a little easier looking for a painter than it was a contractor. I found 3 on Craigslist, first guy's bid was 2500. Second was 3400 and third was about a thousand, and will be a little more if a second coat is needed. I was surprised at the wide variance of bids. Of course we went with #3; you saw that coming right? Don't worry, he's licensed, bonded, insured, and has been in business for 12 years. Since it's approaching winter, all of them had early openings for interior painting so we had to get busy taking everything off the walls and cleaning. We can move pretty fast when we have to! So again, my bedroom is being used for storage. I still have one box of my mom's, and things we had to remove from the living room because Abe was getting into them, so what's a half-dozen more boxes? I really have loved these walls but I did them over 20 years ago and a change will be good. Tony feels bad about spending the money but I said that everything we are doing is...