Showers vs Tubs

I am a shower person. I have been for as long as I can remember. There is something about the way the water beats against the top of my back and shoulders that feels like a million massages. The hot water gently rolls down my shoulder and off the leg. It clears the mind, cleans the hair, and fills my lungs with the humidity they crave. Showers are wonderful.

I had never cared for baths....until I moved to Oklahoma and I realized baths=childhood.

I have my own bathroom here, no need to share. I'll stopper up the tub and let the shower fall down around me. I can watch the water pool in my stomach and drain as I breathe in and out. I can think and lay silently. I can just be, no time-lines, no deadlines, just me.

I can turn off all the lights and just lay in the hot water in darkness and lose all my sense and focus on what is going through my head, or focus on absolutely nothing. It is peaceful, and it reminds me of The Little Mermaid.

Strange analogy, I realize, but hear me out!

When Ariel first entered my life I was aware of two very distinct things.
1. She had the life and she was ruining it, no matter how cute Prince Eric is, she had it made

-which leads me to point two-

2. She was leaving her dad behind and she was only 16 and married, so not cool. Eric should have just become a merman and Ariel would have had the best life ever...except for the whole legs thing, but if she had a magical father, shouldn't she get legs or fins any time she liked...I mean honestly.

I digress. When I was young and full of wonder at the colors and music I would pretend I was a mermaid. I would put my legs through our diving rings during the summers at the pool and swim around as best I could under the water. I could feel the motion of the water rushing around me in a slow motion sort of sense, everything about it felt calm, relaxing. I could splash around as much as I wanted, drag bubbles down beneath the surface with me and feel as they worked their way from behind my back and gently float upward to the surface. I wanted to badly to be able to hold my breath so I could stay down longer: there was no noise, things were simple and blue, and I was gently rocked back and forth as people swam passed. This was magical, and my love affair with water has not ceased.

So there I am in the tub, the heat is surrounding me and I have the distinct pleasure of plunging my head under the water, feeling my hair gently wrap around me [and it always looks good wet, NEVER a bad hair day under water ;)] and listen to nothing, possibly the muddled sounds of water dripping or my arms swaying on occasion.

Let me break it down for you in the simplest possible way - bath time is like swimming as a child without a care. It is a pleasure and a stress reliever and it is severely under-appreciated by the general population. Since when was being clean just a necessity, savoring it is so much more rewarding...

In other news, did I mention I went to Boston? Oh, yeah, I went to Boston and it was great, an adult extended field trip. You learn some things, you eat some food, you learn some things, you see the sights...mostly you eat the food. And if you're like me you learn about food, you eat food, you plan places where good food is, and then you think about food some more...it was all about the food.