Monday, Sep. 15, 2008

Faux-house shopping

BethZilla is your go-to woman for music and entertainment in the Tri-Cities. A writer, photographer, videographer and blogger extraordinaire, she speaks her mind on anything and everything.

When it comes to buying fabulous houses, there's no better place to window-shop than the Parade of Homes.

Sure, it's full of over-priced mansions a normal working-class girl like me could never afford -- but there's always room to dream, right?

My future second-cousins joined me and Mr. Big for this year's POH. Despite the fact that I had already seen these houses two or three times, I enjoyed finally being able to take my time and look around the homes. Usually I'm crunched for time and rush through, rarely stopping to gaze at the flower-patterns on the wall, so to speak.

The bad thing about faux-house shopping is that it makes you actually want to buy a house...that moment. Mr. Big's cousins were extremely attentive, writing down the prices, square footage and bathroom ideas. Even Mr. Big was taking down some notes, asking what I thought about this bathroom color or bedroom dresser. Perhaps moving into his house won't be so much of me giving up my own personal tastes... he actually said he'd let me paint the bathroom.

Saturday afternoon, instead of a quiet, relaxing day to myself, I decided to do the right thing...to start moving stuff over to his house. Never one to beat around the bush, I began removing framed pictures, pulling apart metal crates and packaging up my books.

If you're single, female and live on the top floor, I don't recommend moving heavy books by yourself. Those deceptively light paper-backs grow surprisingly heavy very fast.

Despite the fact that I wasn't single and technically could get away with not carrying anything heavy at all, I reached deep within myself and hoisted up a large crate with about 20 books inside. Believe me, my back screamed out in pain.

"Lift with your back...it has nothing to do with the legs," my favorite Family Guy cartoon Peter Griffin has said. Of course, I know the truth - but I'll admit, I did lift with my back a little.

With my face bright red, I somehow managed to store 3 crates of books, 1 bookshelf, 1 CD tower, about 70 DVDs, 1 night stand, 5 jumbo Victoria's Secret shopping bags full of random papers and lotions, 2 medium bags of sheets, and 5 picture frames into my little Honda. It was like a clown car - so much stuff kept going into it, it was amazing.

Mr. Big later commented "You're so independent. Why didn't you just wait for me to carry them?"

As I UN-stuffed my car and moved my random belongings into Mr. Big's entryway, I started thinking about packing for Las Vegas next month. The thought of losing my checked luggage for that week frightens me to no end. The airlines have lost my luggage twice, and my family has had similar problems. My trust in the silver wings in the sky? Not very high.