Down the Drain

I tried to take a bath on Saturday. I do that every once in awhile, take a nice hot bubblebath, followed by a shower. It's not the best for the skin, dries it out, but it's so relaxing.

So I ran the tub and put the product in, this time a packet of bath salts from Japan that I've had for about two years. The woman who gave it to me said, looking into my eyes (when is the last time a Japanese person looked someone in the eye?), "It's relaxing." She also had a hand on my shoulder. Was she trying to tell me I was uptight?

While the tub was filling up, I busied myself by emailing. When I went in to check the water level, it was done. It was a beautiful sight: a tub full all the way to the top, just the way I like it. Ahh...

I got in and realized it was just a tad cooler than my ideal temperature. I let some of the water out so that I could fill it with hot water and really stretch out and enjoy the whole event. I turned on the water...and it was cold. No matter, it's always cold when you first turn it on, I figured it would warm up in a few seconds like it usually does.

It didn't. I kept it on, thinking it really would change. It kept not changing. So now I was sitting in a tub of lukewarm water, not relaxing. I let more of the water out, thinking that by the time more of the water was out, surely the hot water would come back and I would enjoy the hot relaxing bath I had been expecting. It didn't happen.

Unbelieveably, I had to realize my dream of having a hot bath was not going to occur. I got out of the tub and angrily dried myself off, put my pajamas back on and muttered under my breath, "I'm going to start this day all over again, goddamnit!"

And then I said (in my head this time), "Stop being such a spoiled brat! There are people in the world who don't even have cold water, Princess! There are people with no running water at all, and what do you want to do, waste gallons of water so you can dry out your lily white skin?" I told myself it was a lesson: Be satisfied with what you have, and don't be greedy. I started wondering if there was an Aesop's fable to go along with this event, and then the little devil came in my head and said, "For Chrissakes, stop analyzing the shit out of this damn bath! All you wanted was a little hot water, is that too much to ask??"

The next day I tried again. Avon bubble bath, tub filled up 3/4, not all the way. Checked the water temperature often. It worked. Ahh...