Showers, showers, showers

My daughter had put drains in her ears for 18 months. She couldn't get water in them for that period of time. She couldn't shower her head and had to flip her head upside down for me to wash it. Then the doctor told her she could:

"A shower?" She cried out in celebration.

Who remembers his first shower? I remember putting my little babies under the shower head for the first time. A milestone experience.

But the first shower I remember was at my grandma's in Lebanon. I remember the smell of the soap we used. When I bought a certain shower gel at Boots' pharmacy the smell took me back to those quick winter showers in Beyrouth.

People are surprised that I shower at gyms: right after bikram yoga, at Aviation club in the past, and at UEnergy now. Perhaps they get inhibited by the fact that they are public showers. But I have been to summer camp and have been a boarder. I have also lived in college dorms and have showered at swimming pool locker rooms.

I am used to taking my shampoos and towels across the hall, or the dusty road in Vermont camp and wearing flip flops in the shower! I also knew the trick to use the shower as soon as it had been cleaned. Which means at the odd hour, right after class and before our study period. Therefore while all the girls took a snack after school and met in the kitchen, they would see me in my bathrobe at 4pm, heading out of the shower, wet hair turbaned in a towel.

When I lay in savasnah at the end of bikram, sweating as if I had swam laps, the shower is on my mind. I come out of the shower, still red and flushed but already enjoying the post-workout high. When I circuit train at UEnergy, the
whole experience would not be complete without the  indulgence of the ladies' locker room. The rain shower head is a luxury!