January 29, 2008

RUB A DUB DUB

Sometimes we commit too early. Like this morning, for instance. I shaved, turned around, opened the shower door, turned on the tap and then cleaned up the sink area and weighed myself while waiting for the water to heat up. After checking to see how many commas were in the number on the digital weigh scale, I took off my glasses and stepped into the shower. Fully inside, water and steam pulsing down on me, soaked in the familiar surroundings, it struck me. I had forgotten to put a new bar of soap in the soap dish. Yesterday, I watched the last suds from the bar of Ivory (I've had a wonderful relationship with Ivory soap for almost 30 years, ever since I shared.....oh, never mind, I digress) disappear down the drain. Now, it would be one thing to have to step out of the shower, on to the mat and reach under the sink for a replacement but no, I knew there were none there. In order to get more soap, I would have to wake someone ( I'm not that brave at 5:30 AM!) or make my own way out of the bathroom, through the bedroom and into the hallway to retrieve some soap bars from the linen closet. And soaking wet at the same time! Or, I could look for an alternative source of cleansing agent. I don't know if there is any real difference between Neutragena hair shampoo and Ivory soap, probably not, but at the time, I didn't want to smell like my hair - I'm not sure why, but it was early OK. Now that I have lost 10 pounds, I can see the edges of the shower stall again and the water flows all the way down the walls to the drain. There are certain body parts that have a much better view of the shower floor than my eyes have of them (go ahead, think about it) but I was able to discern a large number of containers sitting in one corner. After allowing for my shampoo, I counted another 8 bottles of varying shapes, sizes and colours. One of them must contain soap. I'm not sure what the difference is between a soap bar and body wash and I don't want to know what body butter is - do I? I located one bottle that promised a gentle, all day relief for dry skin (how the hell can skin be dry when you're standing in a shower?) so I squeezed a bunch on my hand and enjoyed (but not too much) rubbing it all over and became aware of a familiar smell. Once in a while, my kids, when they were babies and had clean diapers, smelled like this and now I do too. I'm apparently baby fresh for the rest of the day.

And you thought this was going to be all philosophical and deeply intellectual and stuff. Just good clean writing and try to lose some of the visuals from your mind.

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