Aussie Expats Update – Curtains, Kohl’s and Burritos

Here we are again everyone!

Happy Friday America (and welcome to the weekend Australia). I know that your anticipation over the results of our DIY attempts last weekend must have been simply destroying people throughout the week… But wait no longer! I’m happy to report that, for the most part, our efforts were not in vain.

Having gone out for Kim’s birthday dinner on Friday night after a huge home gym training session in the heat, we were pretty wrecked. Despite sleeping in until 10am the next morning (I did some reading, James did the sleeping), we managed to bestir ourselves to get to Home Depot later on to purchase curtain rods and all the ancillary equipment we didn’t have to complete the task.

They have popcorn in there people. FREE popcorn. What? What is this country?! I’m sad to report that we didn’t get any. Even worse, when we went back later this week to buy some sand for our sandbags (we’re weird, right?) there was no popcorn.

Obviously the need for actual curtains necessitated a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond – always a dangerous place to visit – where we decided that (surely!) one panel would be entirely sufficient for one window, so we only bought two. As you’ll see later, it wasn’t our best decision, really. Then, on the way back to the car, we walked past Kohl’s and James reminded me that I’ve been wearing the same pair of denim shorts for about two months now. [Incidentally for anyone reading back home, this is a clothing store and is pronounced exactly the same as Coles, which can make for some amusing moments of confusion when people ask me if that’s where I got my clothes.] Now, I only brought two pairs of shorts to America. I know, I know, it’s shameful and perhaps foolish, but it was winter back home! (And I’m bad at clothes shopping, so I haven’t gone in ages: the last time I went was only because I had a hole in my denim shorts and James made me go). So, despite considerable fatigue, we dragged ourselves in there. It was a bit confusing at first… Until we realised we were shopping in the junior’s section. I have no regrets. I got a nice dress and a very loud, exciting pair of pants from that section, but we also managed to find a skirt and some more shorts from the ‘adult’ areas. Now I won’t have to wear the same thing every time we leave the house! It ended up being fortuitous, because we got invited to a birthday part for the French Liaison Officer’s wife that evening and I wore my new dress. There was a lot of cheese (it’s a loose dress): it was glorious.

It also meant that we were entirely too wrecked to put up any curtains on Saturday. Oops.

We woke up on Sunday and I dispatched James to study while I orchestrated the curtain installation. Fortunately for the house, our planned sleeping improvement and everyone’s sanity, he decided that wasn’t the best plan, and we ended up doing the work together… By which I mean I was pretty much superfluous for the first window and then put up a slightly lopsided rail for the second window while he studied.

As soon as we finished the rod for the first window, it became rapidly apparent that one panel wouldn’t cut the mustard, particularly seeing as our light-leakage issue is around the edges of the blinds and we needed extra overhang to combat it. With some frustration, we decided to sacrifice the second panel in order to have one finished window… And after five nights of this new arrangement, I can happily report that the light that was, as James said, ‘shining straight into my eyes’ has been solved! We’ll buy another two panels this weekend and finish off the second window to continue our quest for the world’s darkest bedroom. I’m also quite personally chuffed that we’ve now done some DIY-type stuff, since we never would have been able to do something like this in a rental back in Aus! We’re considering painting our front steps green and gold with a casual ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie – OI OI OI’ on the front of the steps to assault the eyes of any innocent passers-by… If we do, you’ll be sure to hear all about it!

I’m glad that everyone can now rest easy, knowing that we successfully completed our curtain task (mostly) last weekend! Also, we’re really getting the hang of making seriously great burritos. If anyone is in the neighbourhood (or the country!) let us know and we’ll whip them out and impress you with our cooking and eating abilities at the same time.

To close out, the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge begins tonight! Midnight sees the release of the first challenge, which is really exciting if somewhat nervewracking. I’m hoping to spend the weekend creating a 1000 word story to submit by midnight on Sunday and can’t stress how much I’m looking forward to receiving some constructive criticism on my work in the following weeks. So, our tasks for this weekend involve a lot of study for us both, a (hopefully) awesome short story creation for me, and a sweet-ass at-home movie and take-away date night on Saturday night.

I’ve got some interesting plans for the coming week’s blog posts, including a post about a fascinating anthology being put together about traumatic brain injuries. I’m also looking to do a guest post on another blog in the near future, so stay tuned.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ana