Paint gets in My Eyes


On Thursday night I decided that it was time to paint my bedroom, that the swatches taped to the wall were not the same as actual paint and I wanted to get this done now.

I took at long look at those swatches and after some study one was a shade above all the others, it was The Blue! This was to be my room color! I took it to work Friday and said that I was going to go right after work on the buy this paint. I was going to get the walls taped and I was going to start painting those walls blue right away.

Well. On the way to the paint store I passed a house with a ton of stuff piled by the curve. Poverty has turned me into a trash diver, and in the stuff piled up was a mirror. A framed mirror. I had wanted one for my bedroom wall! I had been look at a couple on eBay, the prices were right but the shipping wasn't. So here was one just sitting there. I couldn't turn around in the street and I was a mission anyway.

Everybody was on a mission. I couldn't get to the paint store and I had to go around Robin Hoods barn just to get back to where the mirror was. I did get back and when I got there some one else was picking through my stuff! It was okay though, he didn't want my mirror so I allowed him to live.

I got my mirror! But by this time I really needed to get back to Dogger. I would go later to get the paint. I did.

I marched in, went to the paint counter and didn't have the swatch. I marched back to my car, found the swatch and marched back. The guy mixed my paint and... and it didn't look right. It looked Aqua. It was supposed to be Light Blue. It was Aqua...

None the less I took it home and got to the painting. It was worse then aqua once I got it on the wall. It was Toothpaste! I was standing there looking at toothpaste! on my wall! I stood there and said "This is what it looks like inside a tube of toothpaste. It isn't even blue toothpaste, it is mint green toothpaste! You are supposed to be Light Blue! Light Blue! Damn it!".

I painted the short wall to see if a lot of it appeared more blue then just a little bit on the wall. No... It stayed green. I tried rationalizing it. Maybe it will turn blue in time. Maybe if it spends enough time with blue sheets will turn it blue...

I thought about learning to like it. I have learned to like a lot of things I didn't initially like. It's part of life - But then I said, "Wait. This isn't something I have to learn to like! This is my bedroom. I control this world. If I don't like it I don't have to learn to like it. I'm going to relook at my swatches and I am going to get different paint. Blue Paint.

And I did. I carted that bad green paint back to the store and got my money back. I found a blue I liked and after getting a second and third random stranger to swear that it was actually blue, I bought my paint. My room is now a lovely light blue and despite a very long shower, so am I. Call me Painter Smurf.