Twitter, weekend, and decor

I have been spending a lot of time on Twitter. I used to pooh-pooh it, having plenty enough social media and long-ago schoolmates to deal with, thank you very much, on ye old Facebook. But I don't know, over the last couple of years Twitter has become more interesting to me. And much more tiring. Of course I know it's where most of the angry bots live, and of course I recognize that the feed is curated mostly by Twitter's weird algorithm so that I don't see what I signed up to see, but instead the various Likes of other Twitterers that I may or may not even know I'm following.

It's awful, is what I'm saying.

But why am I drawn to awful? Why do I keep going back for more? Sure, there is some funny stuff mixed in, and some heartwarming stuff -- do visit @emrgencykittens, @alyssalimp, @facespics and @mecookiemonster for some completely banal entertainment. I don't follow any particularly volatile accounts, just people or entities that I like, such as TV shows and 2006-era mommy bloggers. And a little news (NPR, Dan Rather, my local NBC affiliate) to stay informed. Still, it eats away at my brain and makes me feel bad when I click away, and then an hour later, open it up again. WHY, dopamine? So stupid.

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Guess what? We did NOT have a so-busy-I-have-to-blog-it week, or weekend! No juggling whatsoever, except Shawn taking a half-day Friday to hang out with Kate who had a half-day. It was just regular: work, school, and that's it. No band events! No drama club! Shan was away Thursday and Friday, making my work time even more gentle. This weekend I got my hair cut and colored, long overdue -- while it snowed!! -- took Kate to watch the 8th grade girls' basketball game at CTK (I thought we were through driving for bball this season, but nope - actually it was fun), and we had dinner at Chili's, the ultimate in lazy weekend ideas. I was supposed to go to a friend's for girls' wine night, but it got postponed. I was glad.

Friday night, the kids both played piano in the annual Federation (of Music Clubs') solo and hymns competition, and scored all Superiors! YAY! More and more, I'm glad of these types of things that Alex will be able to add to his college applications. (Eeeeek. He hasn't yet begun talking to us about it. I only hope he's started THINKING about it, but I have no idea.) But also because working hard at something, feeling nervous, and then having to be brave and perform in front of a judge is just good life experience.

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Yesterday I got twitchy about my newly painted, but as-yet-unfinished walls. The new grays are beautiful, but I'd like to hang pictures back up at some point. However, it's too hard to make decisions about which pictures and where. We have SO many frames, but many of them aren't that pretty. And yet, I don't want them to "go to waste." We have tons of wall space, particularly in the hallway upstairs. But every time I start thinking about it, I get overwhelmed for some reason. I want it to look planned and lovely, not random and "college-apartment." It doesn't help that many of my friends here in the suburbs have professionally decorated homes. Bleh. Kate helped me, though, and we went to Kirkland's to buy a new "focal point" picture (they were having a great sale). I think we have at least one of the walls figured out, now we just need to do the hanging.

The wall going up the stairs is the hardest, to me. I can't figure out how high to hang things there. I know I need 3 new frames that match, for that space. The question is what to showcase there. Family photos? Or pretty prints/paintings? WHY is it so hard to commit to a nail in the wall?! SO. HARD.