Pampering @ MindSay

My calico, cat, Abigail, is immune to catnip.  This means she sniffs it and turns up  her nose or worse shrinks from it with total revulsion. for three years I tried it in toys, grew it myself. nothing. So I did a little research. about one third of cats are not turned into little swooning sluts from smelling catnip. but they might like honeysuckle- or so one book said. BUT honeysuckle itself--- the plant--- is poison. GET THIS --- HONEYSUCKLE PLANTS ARE POISON TO CATS- do not try this at home. but the essential oil sprayed on something has a catnip like effect. there were a lot of buts in that paragraph and abi loves to head butt me.


so I bought some honeysuckle spray at a cats only store here in Portland, yes... just cat stuff store... and  she goes to a cats only vet too. and the damn stuff  (honeysuckle: not the vet) makes her crazier than Basil Fawlty. Thinking that she liked it so much I searched high and low for honeysuckle hand soap.... found it in liquid form. Votivo Honeysuckle. I buy it by the dozen at Amazon. Did you know you can have orders that they send at a regular schedule? It's pretty cool. I forget what they call it but I learned of it at a paid focus group. Yeah.

Now don't imagine this is the only way this cat is pampered. You have read about her stroller and cat trees and cat walks. and huge variety of home made cat toys- she prefers paper, silk and wool- fetishist huh?  and he current favorite place to nap while I am blogging of looking for obscure photos of Virginia Woolf - don't get me started on that topic. well you can see it for yourself and how I have even taken to coloring my hair to match my cat. and NO the carpeting does not match the drapes. thank you.

the spousal unit went to a play without me- thank goodness- he has more tolerance for talking heads by obscure new writers--- so it was girl time all the way. I ate fruit for dinner, the abster had duck. took a long hot bubble bath and then soaked my feet some more in the bidet while abi licked herself heaven knows where ( I wish I were that flexible- do cats have a clitoris?)  and I gave myself a great manicure and pedicure. today I may wax the legs from the knees down.

and then I awoke to hear a recording of Robert Kennedy quoting Aeschylus. Candidates now a days don't even know who he was let alone are able to quote him and show such magnificant grace under pressure as he did in Indianapolis that mournful night. And yes snuggs. I will camera the whole thing and the nightgowns too.

my mother was an avid bather. not in salt water of course her white white skin made beaches hell for her, even under an umbrella the light reflecting off the sand would scorch her and SPF 99 had not been invented yet. but she loved the bathtub. I don't recall that she ever took a shower - maybe  a few in her life, but the bath was her thing and then thick clouds of arpege dusting powder. It was a powerfu model of what was womanly for a little girl to watch- my mother was very open and maybe shameless about nudity around the girls, and I adored watching  her get ready for a night out dancing with Daddy.  Her navy taffeta dress with the multilayers of brightly colored tulle underneath and the signature perfume and lipstick ( Revlon's fire and ice - a bright red) and of course her stockings held up from garters on the corset and the high heels- 50 pair which was pre Imelda  but REALLY impressed me and help pattern my own shoe obsession.

 

 

so is it any surprise that I love baths too? having inherited only part of her pale pale skin genes- I could tan if I did it carefully but have not let it happen since 1972- i do prefer, even adore salt water- swimming snorkeling floating tide pooling- just being at the coast or shore or any large body of water calms my soul. and daddy made sure we were all good swimmers so I am not frightened  even if dumped in the sea of cortez where the bottom is black and seemingly endless- but we're talking bath tubs.

 

Every house we owned until now had a bathtub and a shower- Montgomery had a killer of a two person steam shower- but the baths were ordinary one person, two if you scrunch in and tolerated the tap end but now we have two tubs. the one person guest jacuzzi and the two person heated jets Kohler in the master bath. heated jets you say? well let me tell you what that does for you. when you are in the tub the water is hot because it comes from two large water heaters but it also circulatesd through heated pipes to the jets so it doesn't progressively cool off as you linger. and man oh man do I linger.

 

it is an indescribable pleasure for me to immerse myself in hot scented water and just float until prunny and sapped of all energy. and when i rise like a tubby little venus from the sea- body all steaming because the water is 106 ( I have a thermometer) I love wrapping myself in several large towels and just doing nothing till I feel awake again.

 

Those days last week when i felt lost and dark I took 2-3 baths  a day. never draining the tub completely, just some of it and then topping it off with more hot water and climbing in for another soak. using it like a hot tub without the chemicals and possibility of rain.   we considered a hot tub and Jim was against it and when i learned come winter that the jets pipes heat the water and it can be reused i abandoned the idea of having to go outside naked to get in a tub of water.

 

Lest you get really grossed out: I do use the shower- in fact we have four showers in this house and especially if I am sweaty or mud covered, the shower gets used first but then the tub- oh heavenly tub- with no tap end and a diverter shower head for rinsing off bubbles- yes i put products in the tub and sterilize it weekly with bleach- the heavenly tub that soothes and comforts and lets me get calm and feel reborn- one of  several gifts from an otherwise crazy mother. self pampering is a skill every one should hone, especially when it's so simple and so very very good.

 

so along with the festival of lights why don't they have a festival of the waters? that which sustained us in the desert and keeps us alive, which buffers us before birth and quenches a fierce dryness, washes away the visible sins and soothes the inner demons and brings forth flower and food from the earth. Oh heavenly water.

Let's hear it for water- that element along with air without which we would all perish. water water everywhere. primordial muck, evian in a bottle, delicious Portland tap water and the stuff that falls from the sky and makes us smile when we need it most. mikvehs and baptism and food , water. it's got it all. H2O . Oh too. Oh