I've been going through this process of catharsis, a reclamation of my physical and emotional space following the long overdue split with my son's father. Most of it has been through reading for pleasure (what a concept!) and personal development, as well as doing more things that I enjoy, both alone and with my son. Here are a couple of environmental changes to date...
First things first, cover the tattoo of ex's name with a meaningful piece of art by a great tattoo artist. So, yeah... about that ... remember the quote all those moms of wild teenagers used to say on Jerry Springer type shows, "I was young, dumb and full of cum." That pretty much sums it up right there. Anyways, this step in Operation Catharsis was relatively easy, I mean what brings you back to reality more than pain. I also highly recommend my artist, Dana Helmuth at Brooklyn Adorned, I'm the only one who seems able to identify the ghost of my baby daddy's name underneath the artwork, which is fitting, given he'll haunt my life for the rest of eternity. Ce la vie.
Now, I'm onto upgrading my kitchen in my hoodtastic one bedroom. I hassled my super for months and he finally sent someone in to put tile behind my stove and around the window (the paint was chipping and peeling, so I threatened to start writing letters about lead poisoning). Julio the fix it man helped me repaint the kitchen, the old color was a truly abusive hue of yellow, I mean it really slapped you in the face when you walked in, not to mention my former fix it man was on that shit, so he didn't do the best paint job (and forget about paying him before the job was done, he was halfway to the the "spot" before you could say cocaina). Now my kitchen is a welcoming, cozy shade of yellow with sparkling tile all around the cooking area.
Next step, make cabinets less scary. I live in the Bronx, while I have very few problems, roaches are part of life. I stopped going into the far recesses of the cabinets to avoid them, but Dammit, this is MY house (as long as I keep paying my rent), so, I decided to seal and paint my cabinets myself. I'm not sure what I was thinking. So far, I've spent two nights removing cabinet doors and fixtures. The contents of my kitchen now spread out between my living room, hallway, oven and refrigerator. It's a disaster. Actually, I'm blogging right now to avoid my kitchen. I've been wracking my brain to try and figure out when I'll have the fucking time to finish sanding and painting all the cabinets PLUS have time for them to dry.
...I'll figure it out though, cuz I'm a Hustlemama and we make shit happen. That's just what we do...
Now where the HELL is the super? He's supposed to come fix my washing machine?
UPDATE: Julio the fix it man just arrived at 9pm, he is fixing the washer AND he and I worked out a deal so he could paint the cabinets. Thank you Universe, you are good to me.

