Dress for Success

Although the taping, prep and clean-up can get tedious, Catbird loves to put color on walls.  She keeps a shirt and pants, well-seasoned from previous paint jobs, clean and stowed in the back of the closet.  So earlier in the summer, when friends were preparing to move into a new house, Catbird was ready with brushes, drop cloth, and funked out shoes.  She loaded her ipod with Selected Shorts and This American Life, ditched her watch and rings, changed into older glasses, and tucked her hair into a splattered gimme cap.

On the way to the site, Catbird stopped at the local Stop and Rob for a large diet soda, and was entertained when the woman from the red Miata stopped her at the check out and asked Catbird if she "did exteriors."  

"No, ma'am," Catbird replied, conjuring her best blue-collar demeanor,  "I only do interior work."

Catbird chuckled about that through several coats of paint.
***

Then earlier this week, Catbird began a project of her own.  Without bothering to bathe or apply make-up, Catbird pulled on bleach-spattered capris and a blouse with holes worn clean through.  She removed the door from her spice rack, and set off to buy supplies to begin painting the utility room.  First stop took to her favorite DIY shop for a consult and to evaluate the door for (duh - duh- DUH)  evil-devil oil-based paint.  

It seems Monday is a busy morning for the paint department; not only was there a bit of a wait, there were also plenty of  opinions as to how Catbird should proceed with the project.  The test for oil was unclear, but all the men standing around waiting for their paint to be mixed agreed that a 75-year-old wall meant at least one or two of those layers were likely to be oil-based.   

While Catbird looked at sanders and considered her options, the crowd around the paint counter thinned.  One fellow who had finished his paint purchase made a point to come back and ask Catbird what she decided to do.   Catbird conceded the trim will need to be sanded AND primed before any new colors can be applied.  Fellow painter commiserated and agreed she had made the right choice.

Then he asked her if she'd like to go Honky-Tonkin' tonight.  "You know: two-steppin'.  Everybody can two-step."

When Catbird politely declined, he ratcheted up his game.  "At my age, it's not fore-play," he joked, "It's seven and eight play." 

Catbird wasn't sure she followed that fully, but she did get the general drift.  She laughed and thanked him for the invitation and, thinking only of her dear sweet physicist, declined once again.

Only 24 hours earlier Catbird had been encouraged to lose 30 pounds (yes that particular amount was named) by someone she loves, so her ego appreciated the invitation for a night out.  It is always nice to be asked.

She wonders, though, if those long lonely single days might have been improved by spending less time at the Clinique counter and more time in baggy jeans looking at strap-on tools.  She might, at least, have supplemented her income doing interiors.