Regular Joe
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2009
- Messages
- 308
Most people I've met with Crohn's disease seem like a peculiar breed. I guess one of the things that I see a lot of, especially in my girlfriend, is this almost unstoppable creativity. Like many things that seem unfixable actually can be fixed or made better by sheer inventiveness. I've watched her cook, and I've watched her decorate a small apartment, and she fascinates me with her inventiveness and the ability to work around obstacles most people would be overwhelmed with.
But I also find myself doing the same thing. There has got to be a way to make something bad become at least tolerable, if not beautiful.
I've been at this thing, and I'm just realizing how it has been a subconscious way of "reinventing" myself with Crohn's disease. I tend to be a handyman, but over the past few weeks, I've devoted an incredible amount of time and attention to my bathroom. Details, details, details. Wiring, lighting, fragrances, the works. Not because my girlfriend tells me to. We don't live together. But I've been busting my butt making the place where I deposit my butt a beautiful place.
Call it "Crohnsthink". I went online to get some decorating ideas for the bathroom, but there wasn't the detail I wanted. So I just started using "bedroom" decor ideas in my bathroom. Here's the irony of it. I realized this weekend, while having a bout with diarrhea, that my bathroom has become quite a nice place to park my arse. I know lots of folks dread going back and forth, just like I used to dread. But I don't dread it anymore - and I realized it this weekend because the darn bathroom is, well, it's almost like an escape!
My screwy "Crohnshead" just somehow motivated the rest of me to make "this Ol' Loo" one heck of a luxurious little getaway.
Seriously! Do you have julip glasses filled with color-coordinated glass beads on your shelf in your bathroom? Ha! Do you even have a SHELF strictly for decoration in your bathroom? Does anyone have more than one shelf for decor in the bathroom? I have 3 shelves with 2 more in the works.
What about candles? Do you have candles in your bathroom, and if so how many? What scent? You get bonus points for every candle-lighter (not "BIC" cigarette lighters either). TRIPLE points if you have a candle suffer in your bathroom (sheesh it was hard enough for me to find ONE snuffer for my whole house!) Last night I counted 13 candles in my bathroom! That's a lot of candles considering I have a 85-year-old ordinary home in a big city (not a classy 'burb) with a small main-floor bathroom (it was built before they distinguished between "master bath" and "half-bath").
How about music? Have you "broken down" and bought yourself a cheapie "boom-box" that sounds fair to good? Or do you still have that small "transistor radio" you got for Christmas when you were 12 that sounds like tin?
I'm hard-wiring in an AIWA portable bookshelf system with a wall-mount head unit and portable wood-grain speaker cabinets with silver grilles - none of that cheap black plastic picnic-style "ghetto blaster" stuff for me! I even made overhead shelves for the speakers because the bathroom is too small to have even small speaker cabinets sitting on the floor or sink. Get this: I used clear plastic plexi-glass for the speaker shelves so they don't distract from the room color or design. The sound system is a CD-Radio that will allow you to plug in an MP3 "Ipod" device. And you can BLAST the heck out of it, and the room rocks!
Does your bathroom have plants (real or fake)? What about a bud vase? Wreaths? How many mirrors? DONT count the big medicine cabinet mirror UNLESS it is a 3-piece mirrored cabinet AND all 3 mirrors open (I have 5 mirrors so far).
You BETTER have a bathtub, pilgrim! Don't give me the "I'm a man, and I only take showers" line of BS. I'm a man, too. I take showers, too. But I also soak my sometimes sore Crohnnie arse in a hot bubble bath. I have push-button soap dispensers (WHOOOAAA!).
At the very minimum, I know each one of you women have color-coordinated bath towels, hand towels, wash cloths, and splash rugs...of course you have a stockpile of "loofa's" (double bonus points for authentic "sponges") - don't let this "straight" guy have to teach you how to decorate a bathroom!
I could go on, but my point is simple. I have Crohn's disease, so I spend a good deal more time than your average person in the bathroom. My girlfriend also has Crohn's disease, and the same conventions apply when she visits me. More time in the bathroom.
I believe that if any of us would like to get beyond mere "survival" of this chronic and incurable illness, there are things we can do, and actions we can take, that help us "transcend" from "surviving" into "living". I believe we are indeed a peculiar lot of folks and by either "hook or crook", we've needed to be inventive so that we can overcome certain aspects of the disease that don't go away.
My bathroom is like my "atrtist's palette". It started at an almost unconscious level, but I somehow needed to get beyond the pain, sorrow, and dread of accepting this illness. It's almost as if my soul said "make your life better" with Crohn's disease, and I got pointed to the same place where everyone else with Crohn's spends much of their time. "Make this place better!"
I'm so interested in hearing what others have done to make their bathroom a place of luxury or at least a spot of beauty. What did you do? How did you do it?
Maybe doing little things like this can help motivate someone from getting beyond suffering into a more hopeful emotional place? Your thoughts?
But I also find myself doing the same thing. There has got to be a way to make something bad become at least tolerable, if not beautiful.
I've been at this thing, and I'm just realizing how it has been a subconscious way of "reinventing" myself with Crohn's disease. I tend to be a handyman, but over the past few weeks, I've devoted an incredible amount of time and attention to my bathroom. Details, details, details. Wiring, lighting, fragrances, the works. Not because my girlfriend tells me to. We don't live together. But I've been busting my butt making the place where I deposit my butt a beautiful place.
Call it "Crohnsthink". I went online to get some decorating ideas for the bathroom, but there wasn't the detail I wanted. So I just started using "bedroom" decor ideas in my bathroom. Here's the irony of it. I realized this weekend, while having a bout with diarrhea, that my bathroom has become quite a nice place to park my arse. I know lots of folks dread going back and forth, just like I used to dread. But I don't dread it anymore - and I realized it this weekend because the darn bathroom is, well, it's almost like an escape!
My screwy "Crohnshead" just somehow motivated the rest of me to make "this Ol' Loo" one heck of a luxurious little getaway.
Seriously! Do you have julip glasses filled with color-coordinated glass beads on your shelf in your bathroom? Ha! Do you even have a SHELF strictly for decoration in your bathroom? Does anyone have more than one shelf for decor in the bathroom? I have 3 shelves with 2 more in the works.
What about candles? Do you have candles in your bathroom, and if so how many? What scent? You get bonus points for every candle-lighter (not "BIC" cigarette lighters either). TRIPLE points if you have a candle suffer in your bathroom (sheesh it was hard enough for me to find ONE snuffer for my whole house!) Last night I counted 13 candles in my bathroom! That's a lot of candles considering I have a 85-year-old ordinary home in a big city (not a classy 'burb) with a small main-floor bathroom (it was built before they distinguished between "master bath" and "half-bath").
How about music? Have you "broken down" and bought yourself a cheapie "boom-box" that sounds fair to good? Or do you still have that small "transistor radio" you got for Christmas when you were 12 that sounds like tin?
I'm hard-wiring in an AIWA portable bookshelf system with a wall-mount head unit and portable wood-grain speaker cabinets with silver grilles - none of that cheap black plastic picnic-style "ghetto blaster" stuff for me! I even made overhead shelves for the speakers because the bathroom is too small to have even small speaker cabinets sitting on the floor or sink. Get this: I used clear plastic plexi-glass for the speaker shelves so they don't distract from the room color or design. The sound system is a CD-Radio that will allow you to plug in an MP3 "Ipod" device. And you can BLAST the heck out of it, and the room rocks!
Does your bathroom have plants (real or fake)? What about a bud vase? Wreaths? How many mirrors? DONT count the big medicine cabinet mirror UNLESS it is a 3-piece mirrored cabinet AND all 3 mirrors open (I have 5 mirrors so far).
You BETTER have a bathtub, pilgrim! Don't give me the "I'm a man, and I only take showers" line of BS. I'm a man, too. I take showers, too. But I also soak my sometimes sore Crohnnie arse in a hot bubble bath. I have push-button soap dispensers (WHOOOAAA!).
At the very minimum, I know each one of you women have color-coordinated bath towels, hand towels, wash cloths, and splash rugs...of course you have a stockpile of "loofa's" (double bonus points for authentic "sponges") - don't let this "straight" guy have to teach you how to decorate a bathroom!
I could go on, but my point is simple. I have Crohn's disease, so I spend a good deal more time than your average person in the bathroom. My girlfriend also has Crohn's disease, and the same conventions apply when she visits me. More time in the bathroom.
I believe that if any of us would like to get beyond mere "survival" of this chronic and incurable illness, there are things we can do, and actions we can take, that help us "transcend" from "surviving" into "living". I believe we are indeed a peculiar lot of folks and by either "hook or crook", we've needed to be inventive so that we can overcome certain aspects of the disease that don't go away.
My bathroom is like my "atrtist's palette". It started at an almost unconscious level, but I somehow needed to get beyond the pain, sorrow, and dread of accepting this illness. It's almost as if my soul said "make your life better" with Crohn's disease, and I got pointed to the same place where everyone else with Crohn's spends much of their time. "Make this place better!"
I'm so interested in hearing what others have done to make their bathroom a place of luxury or at least a spot of beauty. What did you do? How did you do it?
Maybe doing little things like this can help motivate someone from getting beyond suffering into a more hopeful emotional place? Your thoughts?
Last edited:
)
