I Always Thought Baths Were Supposed to be Relaxing---but....

I had planned to post this while on our Alaskan vacation, but due to my inconsistent internet connection, I couldn't. It's a little after the fact now, but still a pretty good story.

One of the things I look forward to on vacation is a nice, leisurely bath. We girls were busy on the ship from 9 a.m. and had finished our daily activities with trivia at 5 p.m. Now I had until 7 p.m. to myself. I was looking forward to lounging in the tub.

Back to the cabin. Butch was napping---drats---I need him gone. He got up, got ready and left by 5:30 to meet up with the guys. We girls are meeting them at 7 for cocktails.

 Okay, an hour and a half is more than enough time. I go in the bathroom to run the water. I couldn’t figure out the knobs for anything. After about 15 minutes, I decided I had to abandon the bath plan for a shower. I don’t know what I did, but suddenly the bath part started to work. Now I’m in business. I used the whole bottle of the bath gel for bubbles. I got out of the tub, dried off so that I could gather my bath “necessities” while the tub filled. I got my book, iPod and clock.

Now I’ve wasted 20 minutes of my bath time. I step in the tub---it’s way too hot. I finally figured out that the top knob was hot and the bottom was cold (later I learned that this was wrong, the top was pressure and the bottom was temperature. I have no idea what this extra spigot is next to the main faucet---sometimes water came out of it, sometimes not). I stood there and swished the cold water around to cool the water some. I can feel my time slipping away as I settle myself down. Once I leaned back, I slid all the way to the front and half of my hair went under water. Now I understand shower caps! Turns out the tub is way too long for me to “anchor” myself. I scoot myself back not realizing that I’ve set off a minor tidal wave. My hair gets dunked a second time as the water sloshes over the side of the tub and all over the floor. Now I have to lean over the side of the tub—which is higher than the floor---and fling the bath mat around to sop up some of the water.

I carefully settle back and use my knees pressed to the side of the tub to hold me in place. I won’t even describe that picture.

I open my book and start to read, only to discover that I can’t concentrate because the music is too loud. Besides that, I can’t see the clock from my position and don’t know how much time I have left. I decided to just give up because now I have to have some extra time to blow dry my hair. I moved forward to get the soap, which then caused another tidal wave. Add to that the soap was stuck and I had to use my nails to pry it up. The ship has soft water, so then I couldn’t tell if I got all the soap off as I still felt slippery.

Time to let the water out. OMG! I put the stopper in upside down!! Here's a picture of it. There was nothing to grab to pull it out. Add to that, the water pressure and gravity making it impossible. All I could think of was that I didn’t want to have to tell our cabin steward what I did. I was determined to get it out. I ended up getting two nails under and then was able to get it up enough to get my fingers under. I only broke one nail.

In the mean time, after all this trouble, I discovered that I had gotten my book wet and bent! I managed to be on time to meet up with my friends, but I was so stressed out by the time we got to the bar, I needed a double!!

I can’t remember the last time a bath beat me!