April | 2014 | Red Boots

Bedtime for kids is bath time for me. I’m sneaky that way. Or maybe very honest. Either way, right around 7.45pm a steamy hot bath sounds really delicious. It may have something to do with the inevitable approach of the Brush-Your-Teeth-And-Make-A-Wee loop that is on playback around that time every night, but whatever the reason I don’t question it. Someone else can deal with that (that’s what dads are for) – I’ll be taking a bath.

It’s hardly ever bubbles actually. I do love bubbles – their shape and texture and foamy whiteness… But I can’t find bubbles that I love to languish in anymore. Growing up I was very attached to the green bottle of Badedas that stood proudly in every bathroom in Pretoria, South Africa and I have never been able to replicate that piney, heavenly smell anywhere else. So I’d rather do without for now.

And last weekend I replaced steamy, hot and clear with thick, peaty, foul-smelling mud. Black, hot and full of bits and pieces, it was fabulous. I wallowed in it. Loved it.

Whether thick and muddy, or clear and free-flowing, bubbly or steamy, it’s the heat and the silence, the feeling of something against my skin that is not fabric and is not air, that calls to me at 7.45pm. Time to float, to wallow, to be quiet.

OPI’s Bubble Bath is the perfect shade of delicate pink – unobtrusive, soothing, beautiful.

One hour to go… Bliss.

Bubble Bath by OPI
http://www.the6chicks.com

Anticipation.

Makes me shiver. With excitement. And nerves. It’s daunting, overwhelming even. But also awesome.

Like waiting to run that 10km or half marathon – I’ve never run any greater distance, but I imagine that would be like this on steroids! Part of me wants to give up before I’ve even begun, and the rest knows how amazing it will feel once I’m over the hump, once I’m in it and the endorphins take over. The zone of mindless effort.

And I know how it will feel once I reach the end, cross the finish line, when the blood roars in my ears so it sounds as if the whole world is cheering for me. Weak legs, hard to breathe. I know I will bend over double, with my hands on my hips, gulping air. A little bit sick, and a lot exhilarated. Because it’s the end, and I finished, but also because of the sheer physical endurance – to make my body and my mind work that way, to push myself, to experience many moments of doubt and even despair but not give in to them. Exhilarated. Accomplished.

Anticipation.

I am blogging from A to Z in the month of April: the challenge is to post every day this month, except Sundays. That works out to 26 days – one day for each letter of the alphabet. My letter days will correspond to OPI’s nail polish colors, to enhance my fascination (obsession?) with the names OPI chooses for their hundreds of hues.

Here I go.

Are we there yet?