Saturday, May 31, 2008

posting the last moments of May!

I've been horrible at this blogging thing this month...obviously. My friends have complained, nudged and barked that I dropped the ball here.  And it's true.  I take the licks. I'm sorry for not being constant...and just disappearing. I also am sorry that friends have worried about me, taking my silence here as an indicator that something is amiss, or I'm under the weather..nope, just under the gun.
To summarize (details to come later), Handyman is gone. I had to let him go. His single success was the tile floor in the kitchen, but not much else got done (well) or, most of all, completed. I didn't know this (I was sort of snowballed by my so-called 'Polish brother') but CB keyed into what was really going on not ten minutes after she walked in the door here. She came to Chicago two weeks earlier than we expected, to address a critical time...the installation of the kitchen cabinets. She found that the plumbing wasn't correct, the electric was iffy and Handyman had become my personal Elden. Unfortunately for me, he seemed to have adroitly tapped into a very real, still powerful need in me...to have a brother figure, a mentor, a male figure (non-sexual) in my life to pay me attention, to bond with, to learn from...things I never got from an absentee alcoholic father (whom my mom divorced when I was six) or as an only child.
CB realized, at the moment she closed the door behind her here and assessed the situation (aka the damage), that very little had gotten done (much less completed) and Handyman seems to have milked the situation (and targeted my blind spot) to his advantage. I was duped; I felt more than a little sheepish and taken, but such is life. CB, once again, saved the day, saved the project and saved the kitchen.
Shotcut to the present: the hardwood floors were done three days ago; they look great. The plumbing was fixed (Handyman did it all wrong), the electric work was corrected (at considerable expense) and the painters are next to invade my home. I'm leaving for LA in a couple of weeks for one week to see friends, take care of business on the West Coast, etc.  And to see sorely-missed friends. I've also been invited to speak at a convention at the end of the month; a repeat visit from two years ago. I had a great time in this small town hours from nowhere, and I'm looking forward to the respite again.
The house needs to be painted, much still needs to be done, I need furniture, and a ton more stuff I can't even begin to think about (it's almost midnight). MS has been a dear, dear friend and she is my joy and my life raft when the road gets rougher (it IS, lonelier and tougher...).  
Yet, even at the most difficult times through all of this, I've never regretted moving from LA and taking on this town, this house and this new life in Chicago.
I'm having stirrings about wanting a boyfriend, but, that's something I'm not ready to tackle yet! However, I have had feelings, random or not, of wanting to mate...look out, boys :)

2 comments:

martha said...

well, out with the old month of MAY and in with the new and globe-trotting month of JUNE.

your kitchen makes me jealous. hopefully your fabulous designer on her next visit will offer some suggestions on all kinds of things to your new chicago based pal ...

"You're out of the woods
You're out of the dark
You're out of the night
Step into the sun
Step into the light ..."

and i actually have no point other than to quote from an oddly appropriate bit of ephemera ..

Buzz Stephens said...

Glad to see you are back blogging, I missed reading you.
That kitchen, WOW!
Mighty impressive.
I wish we lived in the same town just so I could hang out in it.
And like Martha, I am a little jealous.
My very funky Brooklyn kitchen still has its original four legged sink, a Harvest Gold fridge, and worse!
My landlord unfortunately is of the philosophy "if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
But CB, that girl obviously took you down the right path...