Stuff I Love: Jason Segel, Home Depot, and Getting in the Spirit

It’s been awhile since my last Stuff I Love post, so I thought I’d take a minute to let you know what I’ve been a little bit obsessed with lately. Because you’ve been sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation, I know. ;)

Oh, Jason Segel. How I love your tall, gawky, silly ways. Jamie and I fell in love with him as a writer AND as an actor the first time we saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall (which, incidentally, we watched twice in four days not long ago because FX was playing it all week). We generally love anything that comes from the Judd Apatow crew (why do inappropriate guy humor movies never get old?!), but there’s something about Jason’s endearing, kinda-goofy-yet-intelligent ways that sets him apart from the Seth Rogens of the world.

I recently read an interview with him in which he described the rocky start to his career. Judd Apatow (who cast originally cast him in Freaks and Geeks) actually pushed for him to have leading roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and some of his other projects, but producers continually shot him down. Eventually Apatow told him, “You’re kind of a weird dude. The only way you’re going to make it is if you start writing your own material.” So he did. He wrote the script for Forgetting Sarah Marshall based on a bad breakup he went through and his love for puppets, which also manifested itself in the most recent Muppets movie, a project he co-wrote and starred in. I mean, the guy loves puppets. When you hear him talk about his adoration for Kermit, you almost want to cry. And then he makes an inappropriate joke and you laugh instead. I guess that’s just part of his appeal!

Our most recent obsession is watching past seasons of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix. Ummm…. why didn’t we discover this gem until JUST NOW?!

If you follow the blog, you know that Jamie and I just recently bought our first house. I fall more in love with it every day. Seriously. I’ve already made countless trips to Home Depot, which is oh-so-conveniently located three minutes from our house. (Prior to living here, I pledged my home improvement allegiance to Lowe’s, but when you’re talking about a twenty-minute-driving-time distance between the two, you learn to love the close one.) And slowly but surely, with the help of the internet, I’m teaching myself to be handy. I began my work in the office, since I want to be able to use it for meetings as soon as possible, and the dark sage green color and dirty, damaged trim just weren’t cutting it. So far, I have:

• purchased a power sander and used it to sand down all the trim
• figured out how to overcome my fear of electrocution in order to change out the light switch and replace the atrocious ceiling fan with a modern pendant light
• repaired the damaged parts of the wood and walls and caulked the cracks
• applied numerous coats of paint to the walls and trim
• installed curtain rods and fake sewed curtains with fusable tape
• discovered by A LOT of trial and error how to install wall anchors in order to hang floating shelves
• put together my new desk (only took about five hours)
• replaced the old aluminum blinds with pretty new white faux wood ones
• … and now I’m actually able to start putting in the furniture and hanging the picture frames

All in all, I’ve put in about ten days of manual labor and probably did irreparable damage to my lungs thanks to all the dust from the ancient walls (and we’re not even going to talk about my banged up thumbs and bruise-covered legs), but I have to say, it’s REALLY rewarding to put all this sweat equity into something we own and are planning to live in a long time. Jamie has repeatedly asked me why I’m bothering to take the time to focus on the details, but I really want to do this the right way instead of applying quick fixes. I want to take pride in our home and the work that’s going into making it beautiful. And seeing the finished product? Priceless. (Don’t worry… there will be photos to come!)

Oh, and you might want to start saying a prayer or two, because we also borrowed a power saw from our friends and at some point I plan to actually use it. It could get scary.

And finally, because of all the chaos with moving and whatnot, getting into the Christmas spirit has come a little late this year. Because of this and the fact that we’ll be in Texas with Jamie’s family for the holiday, we opted not to decorate this season, so our neighbors probably think a couple of regular Scrooges just set up camp next to them. (Next year, though…. next year!) And I feel like it just gets harder and harder to get in the spirit when the Christmas music starts playing on the radio and Christmas commercials come on TV on Halloween. It’s like I have to mentally block myself from really processing it all because I don’t want to get burnt out before December even begins, but then I find myself still blocking it out when it’s mid-December and everyone else has already sent out their cards, bought their gifts, and hosted their parties. Then I feel like a real Grinch. Fortunately, few things put me in a happy Christmas mood quite like some classic movies, and last night, when my brother Seth and his girlfriend Joy were in town to visit, after a most delicious meal at Flip Burger (we’re talking gourmet turkey burgers, sweet potato tots with chocolate salt and marshmallow foam, and Krispy Kreme milkshakes, people) we decided to rent Christmas Vacation. Thank you, Clark Griswold, for reminding me of everything I love about the season.

Now…. let the celebrating begin!