Modifications Don't Have To Be Ugly, and More Queer Eye Revelations...

 

 

 

As Kurt Cobain wrote years ago, “I’ve got a new complaint,”, and when that happens, I swear there’s a part of me that wishes there’s a big “Gratitude” emoji or some kind of court reporter that could pop out and, you know, stipulate to all the ways I’m you know, #blessed, even as I see all the ways that it and I, could be better all the time. And, like, maybe this one is crazy-shallow, but I do think aesthetics can be a reflection of who matters, who gets to leave a mark—who gets to look and who gets to look back, blah, blah,(If you  went to college you’ve heard these things….again, #blessed(Ish?)

My modified bathroom(Again, a gift that young people starting out can’t be thinking “Of course,” because austerity comes more than Ron Jeremy in his heyday) is really fucking ugly.  Like Texaco at midnight fugly, despite all the women’s touches Actual Mom and I put out to put lipstick on this pig.  But, you know, I didn’t pay for it except with my dignity and a truly inhospitable renovation process—it’s been long enough and tumultuous enough that sometimes I hope those guys died in a 4-car pileup with the guidance counselor that mixed me up with the mathlete in the Rascal I never even met. We learn to accept “kind of works”—doorways you only fit through if you’re up on fiber and meditation, having to fit your whole life on three shelves that are arms’length, and it’s not enough.  Even with long arms. And, you know, both the blessing and the curse of Queer Eye” is the gentle way it assures you that you, yes, you, are living in a hovel right now, and it’s not fucking great.(But it could be fab.) Years ago, they did some work for a very cool guy who’d been through a lot, namedSpeedy , and it was a revelation.

Nothing they did was ugly.(Although they saw four apartments before they could find one to modify, it should be noted…housing crisis, right?)

Nobody said “Somebody will be there to help in the kitchen.(One of the million reasons I can’t cook, and I’m over fifty.)

What would it be like if we all got modifications from people who cared? Speedy deserved it, but what if we all did? What if we all stopped buying shower chairs that were band-aid colored? 

* This post was edited to add a link.  I'm not sure how great it looks because I would never do insta because photos of me? Yikes.