What people have taught me.

Many moons ago I had an intern working for me in the prop department at Steppenwolf.  Sadly, I don't remember her name, most likely because she only stuck around for a week or so.  No, I didn't scare her off.  I actually tried to help her and teach her things.  I did, really, don't scoff.  I think she decided props wasn't her gig especially since the shop was dirty.  Hey, to each their own, right?

Anyway, I remember standing at a work table with her, showing her how to do something when she asked me, "who taught you all of this?"  I paused, reflected, and realized, huh, no one.  Or rather, I taught myself.  I looked at her and said, "I learned all this on my own."  She looked at me like she didn't believe me.  Clearly I haven't forgotten that moment which was um, just a few some, not many, ok several years ago.  Ok, lots, fine.

I tend to remember saying that whenever I'm posed with a seemingly complicated task in front of me.  Or it just flashes through my mind when I'm about to do something like take out an existing kitchen faucet and install a new one like I did yesterday.

Back then I really did just jump all in, two feet forward, head first, and taught myself prop stuff.  I'm sure I have my parents to thank for teaching me that skill.  The list of stuff I learned is lengthy, the amount of various weird projects or products I used, the crazy tasks that were asked of me.  I think sometimes it came down to necessity, well, no one else is going to get this done, you have no choice.  Sometimes it was, well, I want this done a specific way, I'll hop to it.  But I think most of it was I'm a capable human being and I can do this, it can't be that hard.

I remember saying to that intern, "you can do anything you want to do."  Maybe I did scare her off because she looked at me super crazy after that comment.

So anyway, we hate the cheapy little wimpy kitchen faucet they installed in the photo above.  It was a last minute, final final walk through (we had 3 final walk through's) installation and they did a hack job of it.  It was always loose, it dripped, the sprayer never wanted to seat back in, it was generally a piece of crap.  And of course it was another multi-month shopping adventure online and in stores.  Literally every time I was at Menards, my favorite store on the planet, I would swing through or peek down the faucet aisle.  I don't even know how many I sent to Mike, most receiving no response or a crinkled face of disapproval if I showed him in person.  

Part of it was him tired of me showing him faucets all the time, but last week I showed him one on eBay* and he said, go, bid on it.  So I did, not expecting to win.  But I did, and then I worried, aw dear, did I get the right one, what if it looks bad, what if it too is a piece of junk, did I make a mistake....This stuff keeps me up at night.  Seriously.

It showed up and it's huge!  Panic!  Well, I've never taken out a kitchen faucet before, nor installed one, nor have I done much plumbing at all that wasn't theater-related (read:  doesn't really have to work), nor do I really know much about plumbing in general.  Then that thought flashed through my head, who else is gonna do it, please, what's stopping you from figuring it out, how hard can it be, hop to it babe.  So I did.  And now we have a spiffy new faucet.  Yay!

Don't ever think you can't do something because I'm willing to bet, if you dove right in, you can do it.

*The kitchen faucets link is an eBay affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.