In the Bathroom

January 8, 2008

I often have my most brilliant thoughts during and after showering, while I'm still in the bathroom. Today, I had three. Unfortunately, those thoughts are contained within the bathroom walls. Immediately upon opening the door, I forget every single thing and have a nagging feeling for the next thirty minutes or so as I struggle to remember my brilliant thoughts. Eventually I forget about the nagging feeling, as well. For years I've been thinking (while I'm in the bathroom) that we should have a chalkboard in the bathroom so that I can jot down my brilliant thoughts. But, of course, I forget about the chalkboard once I step outside the bathroom, and the vicious cycle continues.

One of the things that makes me forget my ideas is that I am easily distracted. Today, right before leaving the bathroom, I was distracted by the left-hand sink, also known as the bath-toy depository. For years, toys that accompany the kids during their baths end up draining in this sink. We are so used to not using this sink that it really only gets cleared out once or twice a week.

But this morning, for some reason, I really looked at the depository and how it is such a fitting picture of this stage of our life. It's an assembly of miscellany: a three-headed dog, Goliath, Darth and Anakin, two Barbies, a pair of goggles, a canoe, a boat, half a submarine. A dozen objects collected and chosen just for their bath-times by a little boy and a little girl.

This is my reality. This is the real concrete of every day life, right now, and someday the sinks will be just sinks. Someday I will have a whole bathroom cabinet that holds cleaning supplies rather than toys. Someday I won't pick Legos out of the drain. But for now, and a few years yet, I have a new perspective on the left-hand sink. I just wish the Barbies would wear their swim suits.