March 6, 2002
Bathrooms RULE

My house is going through some dramatic changes. My dad left his job in Dedham, and now works in Bourne for quite a bit of money. It's funny, though, because I thought you had to work before you get paid. Suddenly, we're loaded with cash.

I thought this to be absolutely magnificant. (I hope I spelled that correctly.) What's better than a great sum of money given to you at one time?

The first big buy was my guitar. I meant to mention that a few weeks ago, but I got a bit lazy. You all probably know anyway.

Next, my dad comes home with a new DVD player for my parents' room.

'This way, when you have your friends over, you can watch your movie downstairs and I can watch it upstairs,' he explains to me, while struggling to plug in the DVD.

Oh. Right. Except I never have people over... But that's ok. More DVDs for me.

Just when I thought the buying-expensive-things-spree was over, he comes home with another DVD player and a surround sound system.

'Now you can put CDs in there and listen to them out here. I'm gonna take a week to put all these speakers in there,' he reasons.

Oh. Right. I don't listen to music out there... But that's ok. More CDs for me.

No, my friends, it's not over yet. He has given my mom $2000 to do what she'd like with the house. She has decided to fix the upstairs bathrooms, and furnish the basement.

I'm pleased with the new bathroom, because I am disgusted with its current condition. A year or two ago, my mom peeled down all the wallpaper, stating that, 'This way, I'll have to put new paper up.' Well that never happened, did it mom? I've had to deal with an off-white/yellowish wall with moldy corners for two years. In the morning, my face will look just fine, as if I had never had a pimple in my life. Then I walk out and look in another mirror, and every possible blemish is revealed. The glare of the walls affected it all. So some new walls and a floor that doesn't dip in the middle will be just fine for me.

I don't know why she's fixing up my dad's bathroom. His doesn't have real problems, except the wallpaper is peeling a little. That's just because she put it up. Oh, that's right. She put up his wallpaper in his bathroom, but didn't bother with ours! I suppose she was just avoiding his angry bellow.

The basement is what I'm looking forward to most. It was absolutely inhabitable before. (That means you couldn't live in it.) All my friends say "Hey, let's go down to the basement and do _____." They treat the basement just like another room in the home. My family never thought that way. It was just an underground hole that the cats live in. In smells like cat shit too. One of the horrible reasons I never go down there - no one cleans it out.

Until Sunday... my mom disappeared for many hours, and eventually I began to wonder where she was. After three hours, she emerged.

'I cleaned out the basement! Go see!'

I went downstairs and gasped. (OK, I didn't really gasp. I wasn't that impressed - it's just a basement.) There were no boxes of Christmas and Halloween decorations; there were no more Barbies strewn about; the dust on the couch was gone; and for once, I could see the true color of our gray, cement floor - a grayish, cement resemblance.

I can't wait until the guy comes tomorrow and paints. By next week, I'll have a place to just hang out. My basement is too cool for you guys.

- Molly the Great{4:04 pm}

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