Splish Splash!

From the time I was little I have always treasured a long, hot bubble bath. When I was small I would put on elaborate "shows" for cameras that only I could see - cooking shows where I was better than Julia Childs because I could turn soap and water into Filet Mignon, fashion shows where Barbie walked hand in hand with GI Joe, diving competitions where they competed in diving from the faucet into a mountain of bubbles, infomercials selling anything I could create from my hodgepodge of filched and stashed bath toys. As I got older baths became time to escape whatever was going on outside the bathroom door and dive into a book. Sometimes I would not emerge until I finished an entire book, which based on the length of the book may or may not be a feat worth mentioning. I had to purchase a few library books that took an accidental dip in the water when I knocked them off the edge of the bathtub over the years and I soaked many of my own books this way. The wonder of all of this is that for a large portion of my childhood and all of my teenage years we only had one bathroom. So for the hours (yes hours) that I was in the bathtub my mother and brother were stuck without access to a bathroom. Generally I limited myself to the two hour range because beyond that my skin would be pickled and pruned for what seemed like days on end. My mother could have set a strict time limit for these baths but she recognized that I needed that escape, that I treasured that time and that pleasure of hot water, bubbles, and a great book. My brother grumbled and called me many names, some of which I am quite certain he could have patented because they were completely new combinations, but he really could not do much about it since it was parentally-sanctioned. There were a few times when I had ice dumped in on me as a not so subtle hint that I had pushed it too far (I almost always pulled the curtain even though I was guaranteed privacy...maybe that explains it!) but looking back I am amazed that there was not an all out sibling war over that one. Even though we may not have had a lot and things often got rough with issues that seemed impossible, I could always escape for a while into a land of bubbles and books. Not the most common coping mechanism but one that I now treasure and still use - and still occasionally have to fish a book out of the water.