Exit Stage Left

Because my parents are engineers I tend to think that I can put together anything, hang up anything and tackle any household project with zest and ease. However, this is hardly ever the case. I'm a fairly logical thinker, so I may have an easier time than most at these sorts of tasks, but I struggle...despite my technically-inclined parental units. Afterall, I begged for my D in Physics and I'm a marketer....for theatre, no less! My genetic predispositions, or lack thereof, are a conversation for another time, though.

Hopefully some day soon the college girl in me will die and I will grow up and realize that I don't need to buy particle board furniture that "takes minutes to assemble." But until she does the do-it-yourself furniture row at Target is among my favorite. Since I moved into this house (a year ago this week, if you can believe it!) I've needed another set of bookshelves. The five boxes of remnant books and binders sitting in the front room finally got the best of this evening and being as I'm a cheap-skate who prefers to spend her money on experiences rather than possessions the $29.99 plywood special was just what I had in mind.

I've just spent about an hour and 45 minutes attempting to put together a five shelf "cherry wood" book case and have failed miserably. Somewhere along the way I guess I mixed up a couple parts and now I can't get the pre-drilled holes in the top section to fit together with those in the bottom section. I know it's hard to believe, I mean, the directions are so simple and easy to follow and, afterall, my parents are engineers! I also managed to punch a hole in the side by pushing on a dowel too hard, making it unethical to just repackage and return them--which is what I'd like to do at this point. Tomorrow morning I guess I'll break out the pliers, unscrew everything and start from scratch. I'm guessing that when all is said and done I will have spent probably three to four hours on this and while I'm sure I'll enjoy being de-cluttered I have to wonder: were the loss of time, the hassle and the paper cuts worth the actual hard cost savings of this DIY? No fucking way!