Baths: boring as hell, or a good time to read?

[Sally, la reina]

As I head off for my daily soak, I wonder: how many of my fellow TCers love a good hot bath like I do? How many spend ten minutes twiddling their thumbs, thinking about wasted water, and just not relaxing?

Sweeter and I are deeply divided on this issue. I think he might even have played the "soaking in filth" card before I stomped on his toes and made him take it back. I comet that tub often!
Granted, I'm no Japanese, there is no showering pre-bathing, but still. I shower in the morning and get the fuzz off.

But I think this is part of my Scandanavian heritage. I love it. Hot water, steamy air, echoey bathroom, smelly soaps, washcloths, time to read a chapter or two of my book, a nice cold glass of wine ice water sweating in a glass, and maybe the sound of the radio wafting in from the other room.

What about you? Do you enjoy a nice long bath? Or are you of the shower-and-be-done-with-it camp?

[Sandi]

I'm a shower girl. I have never really liked baths. I feel dirty after I take one.

[Lori]

Oh how I love my baths! I HATE when I have to wash my hair because it's too long to do it in the bath. I've had long hair since I was 16, but even so sometimes I consider cutting it off so I don't have to shower. I'm lucky that I only have to wash it once a week.

I love bath products. Every time I bathe I get all excited about choosing which one I want now. Ahhh. I've got a whole drawer plus shelf in my big cabinet with bath products. I find so many wonderful ones at GoodWill! And I'm pretty choosy too, I steer clear of Sodium Laurates.

The only time I must shower is in the summer when I'm filthy from gardening, and even I get leery of soaking it all that dirt - the water would probably be black.

[Sally, la reina]

Oooo, I never thought of all the bath products people probably get as gifts and don't use!

[Kevin]

great. just me and the girls talking about baths. yeah, i took one tonight. read some of my new book. i mean i rarely use my lime verbena scrub but i def take baths in the cold months. especially when i am really tired, showers for clean. the key to a good bathtub is a faucet you can work with your foot to add more hot

[Lori]

Ah, yes absolutely the foot faucet control.

I love Kevin. Such a man, and so in touch with his anima! That's what makes him such a man.

[Mary]

I like them in theory but they always end up being....annoying. I drop my book in the water, I knock my wine glass over, I get a crick in my neck, the cat falls in...

When I was poor art student I lived in one of those old houses that had been converted into apts and I had a giant cast-iron clawfoot tub--no shower. It was rather a pain in the ass.

[[deleted user]]

I'm with Sandi, I only shower. Well I'm not with Sandi in the shower,,,,, you know what I mean.

[Catalina]

I LOVE BATHS! I add a veritable salad of ingredients to them: salts, oils, bubbles, creamy-fizzy-things. I love the way hot water feels. It goes so much deeper than the skin. I don't read in them, but I do randomly sing and drink adult beverages.

[Catalina]

I am always paranoid I'll drop the book in. I do have a book of erotica with waterproof pages, but that's not for solo bath nights.

[Lori]

Except if you run a warm stream from the faucet on your pudenka. Or however you spell it.

[Catalina]

I'm glad subtly rules here at GR:TC.

[Sally, la reina]

I drop a lot of books in the tub. It's a bi-monthly occurrence.

Our current bathtub does NOT have good toe-controls. The faucets are these big slippery bulbs.

[Catalina]

I'm not even going to talk about the tub at this place: http://www.bohemianhotelasheville.com... (click to 3rd picture)

Y'all might get jealous. That's where we were "snowed in" last Friday night. Yeah. Envy me.

[Mandy]

I adore baths, but shower in the mornings. I have ruined a countless number of bazillion dollar law books by way of the tub.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

I love baths, bubbly baths, and I'll even wash and condition my hair in the bath, I just do a quick shower rinse off before getting out.
I love to read in the bathtub until the water gets cold, and then I add more hot.

[RandomAnthony]

How many spend ten minutes twiddling their thumbs, thinking about wasted water, and just not relaxing?

Ten minutes isn't enough! Longer, longer!

Four comments:

1. I almost always read new magazines in the bath. And they don't have to be manly. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I cop to reading In Style in the bath when "my wife's copy" arrives in the mail.

2. I'll usually read for a while and then put the book aside and sit there and try not to think for a few minutes before I get out.

3. Summer baths are different than winter baths.

4. Why are Sally's books so slippery?

[Cynthia]

Bun: I want to go to that hotel NOW. Is it in North Carolina? To die for!!

[Kevin]

i am in the bath right now as i post this

[Catalina]

Cynthia wrote: "Bun: I want to go to that hotel NOW. Is it in North Carolina? To die for!!"

That was my post. It is in Asheville, NC. It's only about 9 months old. It was pretty amazing.

[Jaimie]

I do believe it's bathing in your own filth. Plus, if you're a woman, you are more prone to infections of the innards. I like my shower, thank you!

[Catalina]

I guess some of us are just not that filthy.... :)

Seriously, what are people doing before they take a bath? Rolling around in the the garbage in the alley, wrapping themselves in dirty socks, and then sitting around like that for a week? NO!

[Kevin]

thanks jamie for that. now i am recommending very un-sexy hi-pressure/hot water hosings with industrial cleaner/degreaser for all women. you have effectively ruined one of my fav connie chung fantasies

[[deleted user]]

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "i am in the bath right now as i post this"

Don't drop your iphone/laptop.

[Kevin]

it's ok. i am testing my prototype iphone bath protective case system called iFloat

[Cynthia]

Catalina wrote: "Cynthia wrote: "Bun: I want to go to that hotel NOW. Is it in North Carolina? To die for!!"

That was my post. It is in Asheville, NC. It's only about 9 months old. It was pretty amazing.
"
OOPs. thanks Catalina. Never been to NC, but I do go to Atlanta quite a bit--later this month I'll be at the Georgia Terrace downtown. nice, but not quite as posh as yours!!

[Lori]

I want an asian style bath! And have someone do the scrubbing for me. Pure decadence!

[Kevin]

that's not what a 4 yr old chinese kid thinks while having the crud ground out of his ears by his mom with a washcloth while sitting in a bathtub with his brother

[Lori]

Kids! What do they know! And when they grow up, like they're dying to do, it's too late to get such service.

Unless they are rich.

[Sally, la reina]

My books aren't slippery, I just have little hands.

[Kevin]

"Carnies. Circus folk. Nomads, you know. Smell like cabbage. Small hands"

[RandomAnthony]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu_bE7...

[Sally, la reina]

Kevin! >:[

[Sally, la reina]

RA! LOLLER FUCKING COASTER! This is what I miss out on, not having television.

I didn't mean that kind of tiny. Proportionately small, and I read big books. And no, I don't want sweeter to hold them for me.

My sister actually got this book rack/wine holder thing for her tub, it seems like a rather good idea for all the Owen girls.

[Kevin]

so you have like regular hands but read like those ginormous coffee table atlas size books in the tub?

[Mandy]

I own one. They're pretty fantastic. Except when the bubbles reach the bottom of the book anyways, which happens pretty regularly. Oh, and the books don't stay open to the page by themselves. The little wine holder hook leaves a mean scar on an ankle.

*Insert Monty Python Spanish Inquisition sketch. "Our chief weapon..."

[Sally, la reina]

Don't they have three main weapons?

[Sally, la reina]

Something to do with ruthless efficiency...

[Mandy]

Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms. Oh damn.

[Bonnie]

When I read RA's comment

"1. I almost always read new magazines in the bath. And they don't have to be manly. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I cop to reading In Style in the bath when "my wife's copy" arrives in the mail."

It reminded me of one of my biggest pet peeves. When my husband takes my new magazines to the washroom. I mean let me read it first before you christen it.

Anyhow..back to topic..I take a bath every night to unwind, it's just so relaxing. I also have an excuse to shop at Bath and Body Works to stock up on bubble bath.

[Sally, la reina]

That's funny. Sweeter won't touch my magazines. He regards them with scowly eyebrows, as if they don't discuss BMW's or Republican politics they're not worth his time.

[Bonnie]

Sally..Consider yourself lucky. Although you never know he might be reading your latest InTouch when you're not looking lol

[RandomAnthony]

It reminded me of one of my biggest pet peeves. When my husband takes my new magazines to the washroom. I mean let me read it first before you christen it.

Sorry, Bon. That's why I get the mail:)

[Kevin]

i don't read cosmo or any of the chick mags. i already know i am a useless slug and don't need to take the survey to remind me

[Kevin]

plus when they have the big LEARN 37 NEW SEX MOVES articles articles i realize what a waste that is because the 2.5 that i know work just fine

[Sally, la reina]

What's your .5 of a move?

Nevermind, don't answer that.

[Kevin]

hahahahahahhaha

[Sally, la reina]

I just had the most enjoyable bath of my life. The first one since Leah, and the best one since February.

[Cynthia]

Oh Sally those post-natal baths are the best. Hope you're getting a little bit of quiet time for yourself!

[Catalina]

I am finally getting the hang of reading the tub. I bought a bunch of "bath books" that I will be okay dropping in the water accidentally, of course).