The time I swore off bathing

Let me start this post off by saying that we live in an old duplex, with old pipes, that lead to an old septic tank, that is undoubtedly full of things that give me the heebie jeebies.

Back when I was young and carefree, lets say 22, all I did was work, sleep, play. And bathe.

I've always been a bath person, as opposed to a shower person. I know people hate on baths and say you're just sitting in your own dirt (ahem, Seinfeld) but I'm not that dirty, therefore my bath is fairly clean. If I don't have time to take a bath in the morning, then I will stick my head under the faucet and just wash my hair. This works great if one of your many siblings already used all the hot water on a cold morning.

So one day, I'm sitting in the bathtub, minding my own business. David was at work, so my house was quiet.

I like to use a cup to wash my hair in the bath, little kid style. Whatever works for me.

I'm mid-hair wash, eyes closed, house quiet, water still running, when I feel something brush against my back. I kind of assumed that it was a loofah or something of that nature.

I'm finished rinsing my hair, so I open my eyes, only to see a giant brown cockroach doing the backstroke in my bathwater. I swear to this day that it nodded its head at me in a "whatsup" style greeting. As if to say "Nice day for a bath."

I'm not really a fan of sharing my bath with giant nasty cockroaches. And I'm a girl, so I have a tendency to scream at any sign of danger. And I'm a loud screamer.

I jumped out of the bath and ran through my house screaming and naked.

I still felt dirty, but I couldn't exactly go back into the bathroom and take a shower now could I?

So I dried off, scooped the roach up with my hair washing cup, flushed it and sat in the living room crying till David got home.

The whole experience left me so emotionally damaged that I didn't take a bath for over a month. I showered, which I hate. And everytime I felt something touch me I would jump. And maybe scream just a little bit.

Now baths and I have reconciled, but I've never been the same. You can't go back to your lost innocence. It took me a long time and a lot of soft scrub with bleach to be able to regain a little bit of my trust. And I don't wash my hair in the bath anymore.