warning: danger of suffocation

I had three panic attacks today.


I'm usually a pretty calm person, but not today. You see, Thursday we re-hung all the plastic sheeting from ceiling to floor. Then Thursday night, Audra's hubby Matt the Contractor ("can we fix it? YES WE CAN!") (sorry, flashback)...where was I? Oh yes. Matt came over and sprayed ceiling texture (NOT POPCORN) back on the ceilings.

It dried overnight. We left the plastic up. I stayed in my bedroom that night, trying not to think about all the plastic, trapping me like a turkey roasting bag on Thanksgiving.

Friday morning I was up and out the door to a Randall Faber piano teachers' workshop in Olympia. Fabulous pedagogue. Reinforced much of what I'm learning from Mimi, as well as giving me new and creative ways to reach and teach younger kids proper technique while keeping it fun. (Not to mention that these workshops are really promos for FJH's new piano materials, didja bring yer wallet? But I didn't mind.)

But alas, I had to come home to the plastic tomb again, armed with three gallons of Parker Paint's "linen white." (Hey, I have to use a white on the ceilings. I haven't wimped out on the use of color, honest!) So Friday afternoon, A. and I (mostly A) painted. And painted. And the texture would sometimes pull away from the ceiling, leaving little, pencil-eraser-sized bare spots behind, almost like a bald spot on a mangy bear. (I'm trying to be descriptive here, and it's just sounding reeeediculous. Bear with me. Ha.)

Got the first coat up, but had to let it dry/set overnight. One more night in the shopping bag nightmare.

I woke up, sweating bullets, around 3 am. There was no air in the house! or so it seemed. Heart pounding out of my chest, panting, and panicking. No fun.

I did some deep breathing exercises and was able to calm my heart rate down.

This morning, going out to the kitchen (taped completely off by plastic), I had another panic attack by the coffeemaker, and again a few minutes later in my bedroom.


I just can't handle plastic, I guess! I've spent the day either in the living room, which is the most spacious of the rooms, or here at the computer, distracting myself by learning more about CSS so I can revamp two different web sites that I maintain.

I'm trying not to think about the chaos, or I'm trying to reason myself back to reality, that this is only temporary.

But I tell you, in about one hour I'm going to rip down all that plastic before I go postal!