...an artist falls on hards times!

This time last year, I was painting up a storm! Out of town for weeks at a time, I was working in some pretty amazing homes, with more jobs than I knew what to do with! Since the recession however, all that has changed. Only one job in eight months! You heard me right, sister! It's as if the spigot has been turned firmly off! So I was more than happy last week, when Coach asked if I would paint something up at the field house for him. When 'paint day' arrived I 'suited up'' put on my messy clothes and headed out to the garage. There I velcro(ed) on knee pads, tied a bandanna on my head and gathered every brush, roller, tray, tape, bucket, etc., known to man. While driving up to the school, my hubby explained that the paint project he had for me was 3 Set's of interlocking CC. Not very 'artistic', but super easy I thought. "Where are they located?" I asked. He informed me that 1 was in the Training Room and 2 were in the Varsity Football locker room. So I hopped out of the car, gathered my supplies and followed the red paw prints down the hall and into the ..............

Varsity Locker Room. I must mention at this point that locker rooms are not one of my favorite places to be, for they can be quite odoriferous! However, on that day I'm pleased to say, it was not unpleasant. Perhaps it was due to the fact that it has been 'airing out' since the first of June...and there wasn't a dirty sock in sight!.Glancing around the room, I searched to find the wall's I'd be painting on. Hmmmm, a Gatorade machine. How refreshing! And a........
FLAT SCREEN TV??? Are you kidding me? Every wall was occupied with something. A bit confused, I heard his voice behind me saying, "You can start in here first"!
I looked to the left...and I looked to the right. Silence followed. The CC's I would soon be painting were on the floor of the boy's bathroom, in front of the latrines, for heaven's sake!!!Yikes! I shudder at the thought, and though the floors were repainted this summer, I had to wonder...

But I couldn't think too much, so I snapped on my rubber gloves, got down on my hands and knees. As I started rolling paint, my mind wandered and I thought about all the beautiful rooms I had painted in the past and suddenly, I realized that today, I had reached an all time career low today.

Somewhere in between trying to stay inside the lines and trying 'not to think about the latrines(and the possible dripping and stepping and tracking'), I read something on the wall that made me feel so much better!And there were more!Ouch! That hurt! At this point, I began to get tickled. You know, one of those moment's when nobody get's it but you and your cracking yourself up!

I started pretending that these motivational messages were there just for me. Cheering me on to victory! I finished the potty floor, stood up tall and headed to the showers. It was there that my friend June called me on my cell phone. I told her what I was doing, which made her laugh and then she said the most terrible thing (something I had not thought of). June said, " I hope you don't get athlete's foot on your hands." I quickly stood up an finished the job in a squat. With 2 down and 1 to go, I knocked the 3rd on out in no time!

Coach surprised me with a diet Dr. Pepper, with diet cherry and vanilla! He really knows how to win me over! But wait! There's more. That man. Love of my life, had one more surprise up his sleeve...

a car wash!

Doesn't that just melt your heart!

No diamonds for me please. Just give me a clean red truck!