#946 The first shower you take after not showering for a really long time
Sure, the first couple days of not showering have a bit of a dirty-cool, hippieish, roughing-it feel to them. You come into your own, letting the deodorant wash away, the hair get full of scraggly-knots, and the sweat dry into your clothes. If you’re camping, you are at one with nature. If you’re at home, you’re at one with lazy weekend. If you’re traveling, you’re at one with delayed, multiple-stopover international flight.
Either way, you’re at one in your dirty Zen moment. And that’s cool.
But whether it’s a day, two days, or even a week later, it eventually hits you: You need a shower, bad. And you ain’t gonna to get one till you get home. Suddenly, you don’t want to be a hippie no more.
Then you start thinking about it. And you keep thinking about it. You start to notice dirt stains building up on your arms and legs. You smell the thin film of leftover bug spray and sunblock on your skin. You comb a dead earwig out of your hair while collecting sticks for the campfire. Your scalp gets really, really itchy. And let’s be honest: your groin region isn’t in the best shape, either.
Yeah, that’s why the first shower you take after not showering for a while feels so good. You can actually feel the dirt washing off you. The white soap bar turns a bit darker and you use a week’s worth of shampoo as you work your hair into a massive Lather Afro. The shampoo gets in your ears, but you don’t mind. There’s sand in there anyway. Your sunburns and scrapes get washed out. Your tightly wrenched neck gets massaged by the warm water. Your nose gets a good blowing. And you wash all the bits of spider web, campfire ash, and lake algae off your face.
Then finally, you’ve returned.
Fresh, sparkly, and squeaky clean, you’ve completed your soapy metamorphosis back into the old Clean You we remember. Yes, your hair is shining, your skin is soft and streak-free, and your scalp is rehydrated and ready to rock. Plus, let’s be honest: That groin region is now totally…
AWESOME!
Hey everyone,
Gretchen Rubin is a longtime friend and fan of 1000 Awesome Things and I’m excited to announce that she has an awesome new book out this week! It’s called Happier at Home and is a follow-up to her mega-bestselling book The Happiness Project which has been tag-team partner of The Book of Awesome on the bestseller lists for the past couple years.
To celebrate we’re giving away five copies of Happier at Home! Let’s pick a winner from the comments each day this week. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment with one thing you do in your life that makes you happier. There’s no limit to entries! Just make sure you’ve got the correct email address so we can contact you if you win…
Good luck!
Neil
