Workin' Day Bath

Today's bath required wine.  Luckily I had a super good Meritage on hand from the event at the Damiani Vineyard yesterday.  When did Finger Lakes wines become so awesome? If you haven't tried them lately, I'd really recommend revisiting, especially Damiani's.  The tasting room itself is a little budget - looks more like a ranch house from the outside than a winery, but the wine is extra fancy good.  Inside is much nicer anyway - blown glass chandeliers made by a french chocolatier who moved into our little redneck of the woods and a stunning view of Seneca Lake.  The liquor distillery and tasting room next door is cool too.  Micro-distilleries just became legal in the last few years around here.  Its new and exciting. I liked the currant brandy the most.

But back to the bath.  I'd spent the day in back-to-back meetings, no time for a bath or even for a proper toothbrushing.  I was feeling a bit harried about the work that I'd done and the work I knew I had left and I had a strong desire to warm up and brush up on personal hygiene before subjecting myself to any more. After my last afternoon meeting, I raced back to the Inn, ready to sink into the hot water before typing up projects the rest of the evening.  Unfortunately, half of my clients, especially the ones I tried to set up midweek not early week appointments with, happened to be over (either working on the construction or stopping by or milling about).  I made some efforts at civility, but finally I couldn't take it anymore and paraded my bathrobe before the watching eyes and deposited it by the tub and ran the water at its loudest and hottest.  No one said anything, but there were some raised eyebrows and some glances at the watches.  Its a little awkward living in the same place that everyone works and congregates in, especially when bathing in the afternoon on a Monday.

Pouring my glass of wine into a coffee mug to avoid revealing a second scandalous afternoon indulgence, I snuck back through the living room.  This time, after ungracefully extricating myself from another hour of being roped into providing free legal services, I locked myself in and listened to Van Morrison while I waited for the Aura Cacia Tranquility bubbles to rise to the top of the porcelain tub.  And rise they did!  In the enthusiasm of that initial rebellion, I must have poured too much bubble bath in.  The bubbles stood a good two feet higher than the water and provided quite a lot of entertainment for the first half of my bath.

Despite the bubbles, relaxation was not immediate.  Violating the fundamental core of my moral and spiritual beliefs, I was still feeling guilty about bathing right then, and the sound of all the working made it worse.  How to relax and not give in to the sad and dangerous American obsession with productivity?

Sometimes, when there is a frenzy, the way is to relax into it, not to fight it.  So I turned off the music and just focused on the sounds of the drills and crew below and breathed.  It became cozy.  Then I drank my wine and picked up where I left off in the Paris Review.  Today's piece was excerpts from interviews in the '70's with Saul Steinberg.  There were some of his drawings too.  I loved it.  He talked about life after the war among intellectuals - drawing Sartre, maybe meeting Camus in a hotel lobby.  But especially, I loved his drawings.  He saw plots so visually.  Plots are my focus too, so I liked liked all of his sketches (especially the landscapes with the stamps and the one of him on a bicycle with a butterfly the year Nabokov died).  I wish I saw plots so visually - for me they are much more in words and acts.  Am trying out a new visual exercise though that I learned from Zia's brother.  He's kind of her twin (I'll explain maybe some other time).  The exercise trains your mind to start paying much more attention to surroundings.  I think it might help.  Will write more about it later.  Maybe a good bath time activity?

Well, now bath is over and life is back to right.  I'm relaxing in my waffle-weave bathrobe, taking a little break under the new crisp sheets and gearing up to start working into the night.  Maybe a candle is required to make it feel mysterious and just so?  Its pitch black outside now.  PITCH black.  And Avi is drilling things that will make the heat come back on.