The Wonders of a Good Shower

Something amazing (I guess) happened this weekend.  For three days in a row, I got to take a shower in my own house.

This sounds like a strange thing to be excited about, and a not particularly notable one; I get that.  But most days I shower in the locker room after I work out.  I'm lucky if I get one or two showers a week at home, and there are more great things about it than I realized until I didn't have it every day.  So here, in an ode to my awesome apartment, are the wonders:

1. It's clean.  Someone, namely me, is responsible for keeping it clean.  Someone, namely me, also tries to prevent it from getting too dirty in the first place.  Neither of those things are true of the locker room, and I get out of the shower feeling, well, not clean.

2. It's warm.  My apartment is heated to something higher than 45 degrees.  Warm air is awfully nice when you're stepping out of the shower.

3. Hot water.  That's right, there's enough hot water for my entire shower when I'm at home.  And, brace yourselves here folks, I can even run the washing machine at the same time!  It's getting crazy!  Seriously, it's nice to be able to enjoy the water until I want to get out, rather than being forced to get out when the water gets cold (which is about four minutes after it gets warm).

4. Towel warmer. Indeed, I have a towel warmer.  K gave it to me a couple of years ago, and there's not a lot better when you get out of the shower, even if it's not 45 degrees, than a nice, warm towel.

5. Stuff.  On those lovely days that I get to shower at home, I don't have to drag all my stuff around in various duffel and shoulder bags like a hobo.  Seriously, my friends laugh at me when they see all the stuff I carry down to my car every morning.  But there are no lockers in the "locker" room and I've had stuff stolen before a couple of times, so I can't leave anything there.  It all has to come and go when I do.

6. Counter space. In order to get ready for work, I need to be able to get to the aforementioned stuff.  In a regular bathroom, which mine is, there's a counter on which you can put the things you're going to need: lotion, toothbrush, hairbrush, deodorant, makeup, etc.  Not in the locker room.  I can use the benches, but then I'm constantly trekking back and forth from the sink to the bench across the dirty floor, only able to take as many things at a time as I can hold in the hand I don't need to use.  This is inconvenient and a waste of time.

7. Privacy.  Yeah.

All these things just add up to a feeling of not-quite-put-together-ed-ness (that's a technical term) when I'm walking out of the locker room and heading to work.

Basically, the simple (and hygenic) pleasures of being at home are totally wicked.