Sunday, July 3, 2011

•in the all-together•

I have locked myself in the bathroom to write this. (Going on a full month without any toddler-free time, here.) But wait! I have news! Silvery, shimmery, glittery news! Today I achieved a personal dream. I turned on and used my outdoor shower. Twice. The conditions were perfect: toddler asleep, 103 degrees in the shade, and an apparatus so cobbled-together as to make my usual half-assedness look meticulous (the pictures don't exactly capture the hose-to-pipe-to-hose connections; they also elegantly hide the PVC aspect of the whole affair). I twisted our garden hose into place, turned on the spigot at the house, and scampered back to a little hummingbird brimming with promise. Then, wriggling out of clothes and giggling like an idiot, I turned that bird. And showered. It was so very short, but so very delightful. It was glorious, refreshing, and everything I'd hoped it would be. Finishing up, I peered out at the apartment complex behind our house and, well, I was not alone. Not sure exactly what I'd thought (that people wouldn't be home? that no one would notice me, naked and laughing on a Sunday afternoon?), but it was odd to be seen at that moment. I can't really say that I cared, but I felt some distant shade of indignation. "I can see you, you know," I called, as if pointing out that I could see the man would make him somehow less interested in seeing me. He did not move. Maybe he wasn't looking at me. Or maybe he didn't care, just as I didn't care, and was going to watch, damnit, in the same way I am going to continue to shower, damnit, outside. What might he have seen? Nothing porn-r-ific. Just a tired mom's bodkin, the color of cottonwood... a woman ablaze with satisfaction. I skittered away toward the spigot (off) and my clothes (on), skin prickling with joy. xox


4 comments:

  1. *Fantastic*. And now we can all see the beauty and purposefulness of that scrounged corrugated tin. Well done. xoxo

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  2. Foraged aluminum siding! Ha. :) Our backyard is a right mess, now... xox

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  3. Ha, I love your shower! It's a personal dream of mine too, but all I have achieved is a camping shower on the dock. And if those guys fishing on the sandbar want to watch, I say fine. I'm not giving up my fun just because they feel like peeking.

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  4. Amen! They can't possibly have perfect eyesight, anyway. So perhaps the us they're peeping is the very best sort of physical version of us imaginable. Soft, rounded edges... no crows' feet, no stubble. :)

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