Weekend Review {7/13}

**Warning: long post filled with lots of stories and some FB drama.  I swear it's worth the read because I accomplished SOOOO much this weekend with the new house!**

FRIDAY

When the police called me after my morning meetings "because the locksmith noticed that the AC window unit was missing when he changed the locks," I became concerned and headed home to figure out what was going on.  Sadly, the police had already left when I arrived home, but I was able to be home for the appliance maintenance person to fix the washer/dryer.  I finished off work from home for the rest of the day.  I might actually miss having all these convenient excuses to be able to work from home after they are gone.

After I finished work, I decided to start the migration of the entertainment stuffs from the dining room to the living room, which included moving the wall mounted shelf and wall mounted TV.  I was able to remove the mounted shelf and relocate it with relative ease.  There were some issues getting it off the wall because it was stuck, so several layers of wall and paint came with the mount... oops.

After a nap and some Downton Abbey, Mr. Scrooge came over to help me remove the TV in the dining room from the wall mount since the TV weighed 50 pounds and was a bit too wide for me to comfortably handle alone.  After it was off, I realized that the screws were very tightly in the wall and that it was going to take different tools (a socket set over a wrench) or that the house was super swollen.  Swollen was more than likely the case as several things in the new house have issues when the humidity is super high, which is always because Charleston.  Le sigh.

I had agreed to meet Mr. Scrooge for dinner after his softball game.  Originally he had suggested Manny's but I suggested Moe's instead because I wanted to try "my" burger (egg, bacon, cheese), which would be the real test of their scrumptiousness.  They definitely passed.  Mr. Scrooge escorted me back home (since we were riding the bikes) and I was lazy in bed for the rest of the evening and finished my first book for the one of the book challenges Inside Out & Back Again.

SATURDAY

Meri was ready to start the day at 0630, so instead of fighting her, I just got up and fed the beasts and went with it.  I considered running, but was lazy since I had taken the dogs on a walk on Friday morning.  Instead, I resumed the migration effort of 2015.

I tried to remove the tv mount screws with the wrench again and while they were still tight, they weren't as tight as they had been the day before.  I was able to get out all 6 screws with A LOT of effort and the TV mount wasn't as attached to the wall as the shelf mount had been, thank heavens.  Then I moved on to the process of stud finding and was about to start drilling holes when Teh Mom called.  I talked to her for a bit, then resumed my migration efforts.  I was able to get one hole completely drilled IN when the drill bit got stuck in the wall.  It was at this point that I realized that this project was going to test me in many many ways and I tried to tell myself that I'd be proud of all my hard work when it was over and done...  I sent Teh Dad the following image and asked, how am I supposed to get this out?

He suggested pliers and tightening the drill onto the bit tighter and neither of those options worked.  He listed to my frustration for a bit and then made the final suggestion of "screwing it in and out."  Possibly the dirtiest, non-dirty conversation I've ever had with my father.  "Screw it in a little bit, then do it reverse.  But just a little bit.  In and out, in and out."  At which point I finally had to admit, "I can't even take you seriously right now with all this screwing talk."  We had a good laugh.  Magically, his in and out trick did the work, thank JEBUS.  I was incredibly frustrated that I had already spent at least an hour removing screws from the wall to get the mount down and now I had hit another road block.  With the drill bit out of the wall, and a lesson in "hole drilling," I was able to drill 4 more holes before I overheated my drill.

I put the drill in the freezer for a quick solution since I was 1 hole away from being able to move to the next step.  Then I decided that might not be a good life choice and took it out and decided to go get a hair cut and run errands instead while the drill cooled down.

When Teh WJL was here, a lady at the market had suggested a salon near the outlets, so I went by there to see if anyone could take a walk-in, and if not, to make an appointment.  One of the ladies had a cancellation an hour later, so I told her I'd hit up Walmart while I waited and be back at 1230.

$150 later (have I mentioned moving sucks?  Ok and I bought a helmet ($20) and PB for the dogs ($13)), I headed back to the salon and got my hairs did.  I love my new short cut, but I have one area that sticks out and gets feathery and I hate it so that was the primary issue I wanted resolved.  When I sat down in the chair, the first thing I told her was that I was NOT afraid of short hair.  I like to get that out of the way first thing with a new hair stylist.  So I told her the issue and she said she would try to fix it.  We went to the wash station and I asked about a treatment since the lady who cut it last time suggested I get one (but then didn't have one..wtf) to help repair the blue damage (although now that I think about it, I'm also wondering if she wasn't just trying to suggest things for me to do to add to my bill...).  I was told it was $15 so I figured why not.  It was the Biolage treatment and I lurve the smell of Biolage always and forever.  So between the extra head massage the lady gave me and the smell, it was $15 well spent.

When the lady started cutting, she asked where the problem area was and I showed her but since my hair was wet, she couldn't see it.  She said that she was going to do some dry cutting as well, so maybe then.  Fine, whatever.  Wet cut finished, she started drying it and I offered to do it (mostly so that way it will lay like it will when I do it) and she said no.  She asked if I had a round brush, I said no.  She asked if I flat ironed it, I said only on days it was flipping out very badly.  She asked if I used a wax product, I said no.  She did all 3 of those things to my hair as she dried it (way differently than I do) and it really pissed me off.

Here's why:
I point blank told her I do NOT do/use any of those things.  WHYYYYYY would she then do them to my hair if I'm obviously not going to repeat any of these actions?  Of course my hair isn't going to lay the way it does when I find issues with it if you don't do it my way.  I don't want a "salon experience" I want a freakin' hair cut that looks GOOD when I fix it at home.  Obviously, my struggles are real.

She did fix the mess that the lady in Fayetteville had left me with.  That lady hadn't even parted my hair to cut it!  There were huge chunks that were longer than the others, it wasn't even with my chin, it was even to my ears (which just so happen to be UNeven).  Disaster. Period. Ever.  I was pleased when I walked out of the shop.  I even tipped her well.

When I got back home, I resumed the migration situation.  I tried the drill again, which seemed to have cooled down.  It would work for a second, then stop.  I tried it several times, in both directions before I finally realized that I had killed my drill.  I was not pleased.  I just wanted to get the stupid TV mounted and off my loveseat.

With a dead drill, I did what any determined crazy lady in my position would have done: skipped drilling that hole until later.  I messaged Mr. Scrooge and asked him if he would deliver my vacuum and possibly borrow a drill from a neighbor so I could drill the final hole.  I got no response from him for too long.

I decided to go ahead and see if I could mount the stupid mount with the 5 screws, then once I had acquired a drill, I'd drill the final hole and screw in the screw.  Let me paint a picture for you, Gentle Reader.... Just imagine.. a small woman, about 5'2.5.  Now she is determined to get this project done.  She had wanted help and kinda but not really asked for help from several male individuals and gotten zero response from them about assisting.  She's dealing with a 50 pound television and a wall mount that weighed 20-30 pounds (full motion mount).  She knew her limitations with the TV, but the wall mount couldn't be so difficult...

WRONG.
Full motion wall mounts are obnoxious and heavy and awkward, oh and did I mention I was doing this all.by.my.freakin.self?  No help.  Zilch.  From removal to relocation to mounting.  ALL ME.

So, I'm going to put this stupid mount on the wall.  First, I tried to see if there was a way I could remove the swivel arm from the wall piece so it would be less awkward and less heavy.  None that were obvious, so I just dealt with it.  I shouldered the burden, so to speak.  I pretty much just stretched out the mount and laid the middle piece/arm (between the wall piece and the tv piece) on my shoulder as support.  The awkward part was that I had drilled the holes slightly higher than I was able to comfortably stand and reach so I had to semi-squat and hold this awkward mount and hold a rachet and the screw and not drop anything and try to screw in this screw manually since the drill was d.e.a.d.

I was doing ok, I had managed to get one screw about a third of the way in, which felt pretty monumental, so I figured that I'd try to get in a screw on the opposite side, so I wouldn't have to bear all the weight of this monstrosity.  It was at that point, that my tender grasp on the situation started to slip.  I was "under the weight of it all" (I wish I could avoid these puns, but I can't, they are the only thing that makes any of this situation better) and I'm placing the 2nd screw in anddddd my socket falls out of the ratchet.  I'm standing on a step stool, holding a 30lb mount on my shoulder with one screw questionably put in the wall and another barely in at all and all the equipment that I need to screw this thing in is out of reach (because I have a big head and little arms (you're welcome if you get that reference)).  It was at that point, I finally broke.  I stood there holding the mount up with my hands and shoulder and looked down at the socket on the floor and SOBBED.  I mean, straight up ugly-cry.  I felt helpless and knowing that having someone else around to help me would make the entire process easier only made it worse.

After I got some tears out of the way, I stood up and twisted in the 2nd screw with my fingers as much as I could, which wasn't very much.  Then I prayed that if I let the mount go for the 3 seconds it would take me to retrieve the socket, that the mount wouldn't come crashing down on my head and kill me.. because ya know, I live alone now and no one would find me until the neighbors smelled me (ok, probably not true, but it's always the worst case scenario in these situations).  I managed to retrieve the socket and the mount didn't come crashing down (thank you God) and continued the manual screwing in of the screws with the ratchet/wrench.

If I had to imagine what slaves in Egypt felt like while building the pyramids, this might have been the closest life experience I'll ever have, sans being whipped.

I'm not even sure how long it took me to wrestle in 5 screws, but I finally managed to get them all in and as tight as possible (ps, talk about an arm workout).  Mr. Scrooge had finally replied and I told him not to worry about it because I am Megan and I will take care of my own problems.  By that I mean, I went to Lowes and bought a new drill that I'm going to return since Teh Dad said he would get a new drill for me that has ZERO issues drilling any type of hole I want.

I got home with my new drill and made the final hole in the wall and got the screw in with some drill assistance, even though I still had to manually tighten the screw all the way in place because I bought a pansy drill.  Finally, with all the screws in and the mount completely set up, I had to find someone to put the TV on the mount for me since I knew I was going to be unable to compete with the size/bulk of that sucker.  Mr. Scrooge hadn't committed to delivering my vacuum and couldn't understand what I thought was a simple request for a drill, so I, again, handled the issue on my own.  I went outside and was about to knock on the door of a neighbor when I noticed a man and a girl 2 doors down that were outside.  I was walking over and they walked into the back yard.. so I stood there awkwardly waiting on them to come back to their car since they had left the doors open.  They did after a minute or two and I introduced myself and asked if the guy would help me lift a tv onto the wall mount.

They came over to help (he helped, she watched) and when it was done he started peering down the hall and I told him to look around if he wanted since he was telling me about the things that are different between my house and his.  He was amazed at the dining room, which is apparently a complete addition to the house.

After, they left, I happened to look at myself in a mirror and that stupid feathery part of my hair was back!  I immediately got in the car and headed back to the salon to have the lady fix it.  I called her on the way and she didn't answer.  I hoped she was with a client.  When I arrived, I was told she had left just 10 minutes earlier.  The rage hit me hard.  It was only 3:30, wtf?  The ladies that were there offered zero assistance other than to tell me that my stylist usually answers texts faster than calls (I hate 2015 sometimes).  I was really hoping someone would just start snipping at my fray for me, but nope.  The most wonderful part was that my stylist is off on Sunday and Monday.. and apparently half of Saturday (which I say when the salon doesn't open until 10ish).

When I got back home, I was ragey and decided to start the next step of the living room set up... mounting the sound bar to the wall.  Seriously, nothing about this project should have really been that difficult, but it felt like I was hitting every single road block there was.  I was pleased that the sound bar had come with wall mounts that I had saved (oddly enough) so it should have been an easy installation.  But no, no it wasn't.

Side note: the best thing the internet ever taught me: put a dab of toothpaste on area near the hanging part of things you want to hang and then press the item against the wall and BOOM the toothpaste dabs will show you approximately where to put your holes.

I'm going to show you the instructions in the hopes that someone else can understand them better than me.

The wall mount included 4 pieces.  2 little brackets for the wall and 2 screws that go into the back of the sound bar.  Wall mounting hardware was not included.  Fine.  I've yet to understand step number 1 and step 3.  Because 1 says to put the screws in the bar tightly.  Then 3 shows the screws going into the brackets and the brackets going onto the wall.

I lost at least 30 minutes of my life trying to puzzle out this situation.  Additionally, the first time I mounted the brackets to the wall, one of them was upside down... then the one that I "fixed" was the wrong one.  Disaster.   Then I tried to hang the speaker on the wall and it kept dropping out of the mounts.  I couldn't figure it out.  I messaged Teh Sister who has the same speakers as me to see if they had mounted their speaker so I could get some insight.  So I went back to the instructions hoping that the Ikea-instruction god would sprinkle magic understanding dust on me so I could figure out this riddle.

It didn't happen.  Instead, I mounted the brackets on the wall (the right way, for the 3/4/5th time (I quit counting)) and loosened the screws on the back of the speaker so they would catch on the brackets instead of just falling out.  

I sat down to enjoy my handiwork and realized that all the systems needed to be tested for this endeavor to be completely successful.  So I went about plugging up all the things.  I considered just leaving the power strip dangling on the floor with all the cords, but at the last minute remembered some hooks I had handy to hang something else and re-purposed them for the power strip.  I mounted the power strip and tried to manage the cords as well as possible (aka I have almost zero fucks about cords showing because I had literally wrestled with a tv mount for several hours of my day and no one deserves that), I really didn't want the excess drooping, so I used twist ties to pull up the excess and hid it as well as possible behind the TV.

Then I sat down again to reap the benefits of my toil.  Everything worked perfectly.  The TV, the cable (with it's crappy channels), the DVD player, the Roku, the sound bar, the internet box.  Everything working was a small miracle.

I spammed everyone that knew that I was undertaking this project a finalized photo of my work because I'm shameless and I'm beyond proud of myself that I was able to do this entire thing (with the exception of taking the TV on/off the mount) ALL BY MY FREAKIN' SELF.  So proud in fact, that it wasn't even a humble brag on FB about my accomplishments.

FB Caption:
"Completely bragging:
I did this ALL BY MYSELF (with the exception of taking the TV on/off the mount). 

Strong, independent, woman.. CHECK."

And then.. FB happened.
I'm just going to show you the comments because it's easier but I seriously couldn't believe it.

Sometimes, just give a girl a freakin' pat on the back!  I try not to blatantly brag on FB.  Generally my feed is filled with conversations from the day, dog photos, other random photos (of ice cream, me watching TV with my laptop in my lap, etc) silly stuff, references to pop culture (Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, etc).. but nothing overtly "LOOK AT ME!" and I even prefaced it with the fact that I was bragging on myself.  It really kinda killed my buzz (figurative because drinking and power tools and my clumsiness could have only made it worse.. or better, it's hard to tell) that people were so quick to point out the not perfect thing.  And I know this is first world-y, but if you're gonna diss my hard work with your criticism, at least like my damn photo for the effort I put into it.

Also, for people interested, NEVER try to mount a tv wall mount by yourself.  Just don't.  Actually, if you can HIRE someone to do it for you, do that.  Because your sanity is worth the dollas.  Take it from me.

I wanted to celebrate my accomplishments (with food because I'm a dog), but opted instead to stay in and be lazy and reap the rewards of my labor instead... by watching Downton Abbey and eating ramen for dinner.  I tried to let the criticism roll off my back, but I was just so disappointed in humanity that I went to bed a little less "buzzed" than I had been when I first posted the photo.

I went to bed and was woken up right before midnight by a clap of thunder.  I remembered I hadn't covered Mike the day before since the weather had been nice.  I put on pants and house slippers and ran outside to move Mike under the carport.  I quickly realized I had locked the front wheel so I had to run inside and get the key.  When I came back out a split second later, the rain was really coming down.  I had some issues getting Mike through the gate (because sleepy Megan isn't smart enough to be doing manual labor) and finally got him under the carport.  When I went to lean him over on the peg, Mike just kept falling... because the kickstand had gotten pushed back when I was rolling him under the cover.

I'm not sure if you've ever tried to pick up a 500 pound motorcycle from the ground in backless shoes, but having done it in the pouring rain, I wouldn't suggest it, ever.  I could smell the gasoline leaking out of Mike while he was on his side, which definitely motivated me to get him up quicker.  After lots of grunting and busting my lip on a mirror and giving myself a bruise that hurts to touch and almost slipping out of my shoes, I got Mike stood back up without hitting Yurtle (also a concern), got the kickstand down, and stood him up on his own.  I also grabbed Mike's cover and put it under the carport so it wasn't filled with water.  Then I went back inside and stripped down of my gasoline clothes and put on a new sleep shirt and prayed that I could fall back asleep despite the adrenaline rush.

Also, have I mentioned lately that being outside when it's thunder/lightning really freaks me out?  Yeah.  I was torn between "what did I do to deserve all this?" and "damn, I really am a badass."  Then I fell asleep.

SUNDAY

Mr. Scrooge and I had agreed on Saturday to go to a place called Sunrise Bistro for breakfast which is off on one of the islands near Charleston.  Besides being delicious, it was a nice ride out there on the bikes, thus the appeal.

Meri felt like I needed to be up by 0630 again and I made her wait until 7 for the pleasure of my awake company.  Since it was relatively cool (but positively humid), I took the dogs for a walk before I had to get ready.  We walked down to the river access, which I noticed last week when I drove around.  Meri was in full hunting mode, which made for a difficult walk and did nothing to help my aching shoulders (apparently holding that 30lb mount for extended periods of time was torture to my body).

When we got back, I fed the beasts and showered and they actually ran me out of the house with their begging for their kongs.  I could feel them willing me to leave so they could go to their crates sooner and have their PB kongs.  Fiend dogs.  (PS, yes I crate my dogs.  It saves me money on stuff not eaten and vet bills since Phil is a trash hound and Meri is part goat.  They don't mind their crates because their crates are associated with getting a treat/PB kong when I leave.)

Mr. Scrooge finally arrived and we headed to breakfast.  The ride out there was amazing.  It was cool enough not to be miserable with the wind and I just love riding down the streets with the trees on either side with the spanish moss hanging from them.  It's like being in a movie!  I had the Texas Stacker, which was cheesy sunny eggs, bacon and grits over cheese toast a cheesy biscuit (I subbed the biscuit after the waiter's suggestion).

After breakfast, we headed to the battery downtown to hang out for a bit.  We saw fishies jumping out of the water and a dolphin (my inner 8 year old Lisa Frank loving girl squealed at the dolphin each time I saw it).  We took the long way home, heading towards the beach, then back up towards civilization.  Mr. Scrooge and I had a communication snafu, but it ended up working out because we ended up at TCBY for ice cream frozen yogurt.  We parted ways from there.

I went home and took a nap since I was exhausted and my body was starting to hurt from my exertions on Saturday.  When I woke up, Mr. Scrooge had texted me to invite me over for burgers.  I wasn't really feeling it, but he makes such delicious food.  I think he also wanted to see the pups and I asked him if the burgers would be cheese stuffed and he said yes and it meant that I could bring my vacuum home (which I really need despite all these hardwood floors), so I agreed to go.  The dogs were thrilled to be going on a ride.  We had burgers and watched 2 episodes of X-Files, then I went back home.. completely forgetting the vacuum, ARRGHHH!!  I did get some selfies with the puppies though.  I just love them!

My first act of business was to take something for my sore body pieces then relax.  I ended up watching several episodes of Downton and writing this blog, in that order because I can't seem to watch Downton and do anything else... or multitask in any way when the TV is on.

I finally am finishing this post past my bedtime, which means no reading for me!  Hopefully I'll have the motivation in the morning to get up and run!  I REALLY need to start half marathon training.  Fer serious.  The race is in 69 days!  That's TWO months from now almost.  It's no coincidence that you haven't seen Sweaty Sunday posts for the last 2 weeks.  I've been doing ZERO workouts because moving and being unfamiliar with an area is stressful an excuse.

But can I get a hell yeah for an awesome and productive weekend where I was SUPER FREAKIN' WOMAN in real life.  /patselfonback




Linking up with these ladies:
Ashely @ A Cute Angle
Meg @ Life of Meg
Biana @ BLovedBoston