Sunday, March 20, 2005

When The Going Gets Tough

... the tough take a bath. Well maybe that's not the way ALL the tough deal, but it's definitely my preferred mode.

The number and duration of baths I take in a given week is directly proportional to the amount of anxiety/stress I'm feeling. Sometimes I will go for a month or more without pulling out the back pillow and lavender salts. This week I think I hit five, and not one of them lasted less than 30 minutes.

A large part of bathing's appeal is that it makes me settle and slow down... when I'm overextended to the point of feeling like the proverbial deer-in-headlights, I tend to pace aimlessly through the house, accomplishing nothing beyond tripping over and grumping at the cat and/or kids who follow me from room to room. Getting into the tub forces me to stop moving, gives me the time to collect my thoughts and plan, or read, or - as often as not - doze.

One time, while in my short-lived English grad student phase, I actually sat in the bathtub and wrote a term paper that was making me crazy - my powerbook resting on the toilet, my arms and hands dry, reaching over, and the rest of me submerged. Yes, it was a small bathroom, and yes I know that water and electricity don't mix but I was careful and it's not like I was balancing the powerbook on my knees or anything. Thankfully I was also living alone, so there are no photos to document the event.

Yup. I like-a the bath. The bath she is good. And if we're ever able to do the upstairs renovation that we dream of, I will have a large soaking tub in the master bathroom with wide tiled ledges to hold candles and teacups and reading materials. Who knows, I may go the way of Brian Wilson and just stay there for months a time, having food and more books brought as needed - though I'd also have to find a way to safely and comfortably use my iBook.

I'd get pretty pruney, but it would be a small price to pay.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two words- hot tub. Just dug the newly fallen foot of snow off of ours last night for a soak.

Kristina said...

Oooooh yeah. Jealous! That's also on the list of improvements, and probably more likely to happen than the big upstairs project. :)

Lora said...

Escaping to the bathtub, the perfect way to rebalance. In college when I lived in the dorm, I would get so wound up at the end of the semester that I would just fiend for a bath. It would generally be the first think I'd do once I got back home after finals.

~ap said...

ahhhhhh, i'm relaxing just reading about it.

and a hot soak is so much healthier a choice than say, a bottle of good red wine, right?

right?!