Paint Color Agony

Since we're moving to another house again so soon, I really want to get my paint colors right this time. Granted, there is nothing wrong with the colors I have here. They're all earth-tones and warm and "Pottery Barn" colors, as our real estate agent wrote in the description for the house. But one thing is clear to me now: too much tan. Of course, like all modern homes these days, we have beige carpet, and I added tan walls to that (a very warm tan.) It's just a little too much. Therefore, I'd like a slightly different palette in the new house.

I've been looking at paint colors off and on for weeks now. Now, I'm at the point that I'm trying to actually choose them, and it's the hardest darn thing!

Does anyone else agonize over paint colors like this? I mean, I guess it makes sense because of who I am: a designer. But I know this isn't a life or death decision, yet I can't help but treat it like it is.

 

Here's my work zone all day long. As you can see, I have everything narrowed down to 1-3 shades, but I just can't settle on one. I mean, what is my problem? Why is this so hard? Am I really, really going to notice the slight difference later on and say "Oh, I picked the wrong color"?

Don't get me wrong, I actually quite enjoy this whole process. I go nuts; I find all the RGB numbers so I can see them on my computer screen, organize them and print out a list (what you see above), and photoshop them into some photos to see what it'll really look like. Like so:

Trust me, this is a blast! Because you get to do funny things like this:

I am very glad I didn't go into interior design like I first set out to do when I entered college, but I like choosing paint colors. It's just that I can't actually, well, choose!

Fair Shutdown

Well tonight was an experience. I'm kind of bummed out, now that the craziness is over, that the only night I care to go to the fair, it gets cancelled.

It was sprinkling, then raining, and I was so glad to have my umbrella. Me and my aunt huddled under that as long as we could until... REO Speedwagon got two songs in before a fair member got on stage to inform us a storm was heading here in 20 minutes, and everyone needed to seek shelter now. Not tents, but permanent structures.

Jarrod and I got separated from our friends, though we knew they were supposed to be in the livestock pavilion. I finally understand the complaints about AT&T and their unreliable network after this hullabaloo, you couldn't call or text ANYONE. You'd walk past a couple people who had success, but I don't know how.

It was pouring and supposed to hail, so we stayed put despite many people leaving the pavilion. I'm not sure if they had some info we didn't or were deciding to leave on their own.

We finally started wandering around, since there was nothing better to do, and found our group. Not long after that the sheriff came by and said we had to leave, they were closing the grounds. Another storm was set to come through in a half hour and everyone needed to "get to safety" and leave.
We had parked out in the lot next to the stage and weren't too far away, which was a blessing. So we didn't have too far to go, and I'm glad that my leaving the grounds was not at the fate of a bus shuttle. We got to my car (side note, thank GOD I had just done my inhaler about five minutes before all this began) and waited. And waited.

I mean, I guess the whole 'evacuation' went as best as possible, but the parking lots were another story. First of all, no one would let me out. I guess they aren't aware of the 'every other car' unspoken courtesy rule. Or they're just selfish... yeah I'm going with that one. Long story short, we sat still for about 30 minutes before we even moved much. The cops had finally started directing traffic, so things began to move at a good pace. Once we were out of the lot it was fairly smooth sailing. Except for one detail let's not forget about: there was a severe storm going down.

As we continued on to our friend's house it intensified drastically. The final road to his house was the worst. Sirens blaring, the wind was just swirling all around us, rain was blowing sideways, and I could barely see the road. We made it to the driveway and got soaked while dashing for the front door.
Let me also add to this that I hate storms. As soon as that officer told us they were shutting down and we needed to leave, I went into flight mode. I wanted out. I don't like storms, so I really don't like to get caught in them. I like to be at home, with a basement if it's needed. Add to this the cell phones not working aspect, not knowing what the weather was avtually doing, since I am not near a TV, or when we might finally make it out of there, plus knowing my mom is freaking out at home because she knows I hate storms and can't get ahold of us... and I was freaking out way more than I let on to everyone at the time. My leg was actually shaking when the storm got worse while we were driving.
I am so glad we didn't get completely stuck out there. And pretty thankful that my lungs held up. And for my umbrella. I'm so glad this storm is over. Goodnight

Support Chick-Fil-A

So, at some point today I saw on a tweet, or maybe in the AP exchange, that today was "Support Chick-Fil-A" day or something of that nature. I joked with Jarrod that we should go to Chick-Fil-A for supper, to which he said "Absolutely not! Some guy at work tried to go at lunch and he said he couldn't even get in the parking lot." We opted for another restaurant instead.

If you haven't a clue why this was happening today, I'll catch you up right here: Recently, it was discovered or said that the founder of Chick-Fil-A was against gay marriage, basically. This stirred up a ton of controversy, and those in support of gay marriage started banning the restaurants in certain places and long-time fans decided to never eat there again.


For my own brief commentary on this, I'd like to say how ridiculous I think this entire thing is. Do we really need to involve politics in EVERYTHING these days? Can't a chicken sandwich just be a damn chicken sandwich? Also, personally, I feel that it seems that if you disagree with the liberal way of things, you get lambasted. If you disagree with more "conservative" tendencies, there isn't nearly the same outcry. Apparently I'm not the only person who feels this way, because otherwise today's craziness wouldn't have happened.

So back on point. Today was a day where people were going to "support" Chick-Fil-A; essentially indirectly supporting the restaurant and their stance against gay marriage. In other news, gay marriage supporters are ALSO planning a day like this, which will be Friday. They plan to flood Chick-Fil-A's with some good ol' PDA... which is exactly the way to get people to come around to acceptance of gays... *shakes head

I have never, ever seen something like what I saw tonight. We turned off a main road, onto a side road where we were stuck in flippin' traffic... for Chick-Fil-A! I mean, they have good chicken, but it's not that good lol. We had to wait over ten minutes in what was, basically, an extremely backed-up drive-thru line that spilled out onto the "road" that runs between a bunch of stores and the restaurants closer to the highway. Had we actually been in line for some chicken, I have no doubt we would have waited over an hour for it. Oh my gosh, people were parking at the back of the Kohl's lot, parking in neighboring restaurants' lots, walking over to Chick-Fil-A, there was a line of people almost wrapping around the restaurant, plus the aforementioned traffic jam. A traffic jam! Over a fast food joint!

On a side note, I feel really, really bad for anyone who had no idea what was going on, assumed Chick-Fil-A was giving away something for free (good assumption considering the swarm), only to find out they weren't, haha.

I wish I could have gotten a better shot of the whole situation, but here is a snap of the scene. It was just plain nuts: