I'm working towards a dual major in Plumbing and Electrical Contracting.

I already have a tool belt.

When the guys in my local hardware store see me coming, they get that look of "Oh no, she's back, " on their face. I seem to spend quite bit of time in there these days as shit is breaking in my house on a regular basis. My family does a pretty good job of running things into the ground. Most of the broken stuff I can't fix because I don't have the parts, the expertise or the license, but over the years, my local hardware store has taught me a boat-load of how to fix things on my own. I even have them on speed dial.

Try getting someone from Home Depot on the line while you're on a ladder, replacing a light fixture.

"So Jimmy, the black wire touches the black wire and the red touches the red?" I ask.

"Are you on a ladder? Get down and put on the speaker phone or I'm not going to tell you how to do it." he said.

They're into safety...I like that.

The very first time I went into that store, twenty years ago, they asked if I had a husband. Clearly, they weren't picking me up as I was in a bad version of a hoody and period sweats, covered with fiber glass insulation, looking for a wrench so that I could to release a pipe valve from underneath a tight crawl space. I told them that I did have a husband, but that he was never home and not so handy around the house by any stretch of the imagination. (Sorry to throw you under the bus, but it's TRUE!) I left out the I'm impatient part.

"Don't get all sexist on me guys, I need help", I added.

"Don't be offended. We're not sexist, we're old school and we don't want you to hurt yourself" the clerk said. "Safety first" he said with a smile.

I have been a loyal customer, an on-going student of all things fix-it, and a big supporter of small business people, ever since.

Aside from the self-made repairs and friendship, the best thing to come out of this relationship is that I haven't blown myself up yet.