Doer

One of my husband, Jason, and my favorite hobbies is "people-watching." Even if you've never heard of people-watching, I'm sure you've participated. It is so intriguing to watch people live their lives. Jason and I could write books about the made-up lives of people we saw for only a few seconds. If they only knew... Hopefully, they'd laugh along with us. One of our most favorite characters was "Dawn" from the hotel during the midnight fire evacuation. Hilarious!

Now, by no stretch of the imagination are we experts on the psyche of man-kind just because of our extensive people-watching research. However, we have come up with some pretty good analysis, if I do say so myself. Recently, we came up with the thought that there are two different categories of people: Dreamers and Doers.

Dreamers are people who are creative and have big ideas. They have contagious excitement about their aspirations, and convince even themselves that they will accomplish the task. Well, some day at least. You see, Dreamers have full intentions to follow through and often even have a plan to get there; but (the infamous "but"), that first step, the step of committing to the task, is often put off until tomorrow. The hesitation isn't because of laziness, inability, or insecurity (at least not all of the time). I think Dreamers hesitate because once they buy the supplies, sign up for the class, write the check, or pick up the phone, their idea has become something tangible and in a sense is no longer a dream. It's no longer perfect, complete, beautiful, and free (literally and figuratively). Now it may fail, be imperfect, and require sacrifice. When it is still a dream it is safe. You know what to expect, there is no buyer's remorse, and you can change it faster than Owen can dirty a clean diaper. For example, the color of the walls in your dream kitchen can go from beige to red, the range from electric to gas then back to electric, this wall can come down or that one or that one, and the floors can go from Italian marble to worn oak, and all of this in the matter of one morning shower.

On the flip side of the coin are Doers: do -ers. Doers do. Give a Doer a task, and it will get done. Set a deadline, and it will be met. Tell them to jump, and they jump. Doers cannot stand to wait around and talk about what should be, or needs to be, done. Why can't we just do something already?! Doers are Dreamers best friends and worst nightmares in one. Doers push, pull, pry, and prod Dreamers in an attempt to turn them into Doers, too. Sometimes, that is exactly what Dreamer need. Sometimes.

I'm not simplistic enough to think that everyone fits into one category or the other. Actually, there are very few people that are completely, 100%, one of them. Most of us have some Dreamer and some Doer in us. I tend to be a Doer - 70% Doer, 30% Dreamer, I would say. Jason tends to be a Dreamer - somewhere around 80%. Jesus was a perfect 50/50.

The whole reason that I got into this topic was just to share what the Dreamer in me has been dreaming and the Doer in me has been doing. I know, what an introduction! I'm almost too exhausted to even tell you now. Maybe I'll just show you pictures instead.

Try to ignore the handsome guy holding the adorable baby. Not that they should be ignored, just try to focus on the bare floor beneath their feet. We tore up every last square inch of nasty carpet in our tiny house. Such a cleansing experience! We've been dreaming about this since the day we moved in; actually, more like since the day we got a cat.

If you tear it out, I guess you'd better replace it. Yes, those are my unpainted toes digging into the softest, cleanest carpet they've ever touched. Our cat is now banished to the outdoors, and I don't think he really minds.

This is the "Before" of our kitchen. Actually, it is the "After, After" picture because it's the third layout we've had in the four years we've lived here. Can we say "Doer"?!

I don't exactly have an "After" picture yet, because I didn't convince my dreamer husband to help me install the cabinets last night. But, here's an action shot to prove that it is getting done.

This is my hideously long hair. To be fair, this is before I did anything with it, and before I put on any make-up. It's almost em-barrassing, actually. I've been dreaming of cutting my hair off for months now. Even before Owen was born I was Googling hairstyles for the perfect new look. But, I didn't want to have hair that I hated in Owen's baby book, so I stuck with the hair that I didn't really like. (For the record, "not liking" is better than "hating".) Then, I didn't want to have that hair in my graduation pictures. Finally, no more major events, so...

Chop-chop. To keep the score even, this photo is also before the make-up went on, and although I did "do" my hair, I did it. This isn't the perfect hair that I had walking out of the salon. You know, the kind that, if you're like me and Jason, you can't stop touching and smelling. It was a 9.7 after she finished, and is now an 8.7 when I finish in the morning. Definitely better than the 5.0 from before, but leaves room for the 10.0 that must be out there.

So, there you have it. At least for now, I'm a doer.