The art of showering

It's gotten cold here. Not very cold, I guess, probably just in the low 60s or high 50s, but I'm freezing. Sometimes I think about all the stories I've read and all the important historical figures I know, and I am in awe that they lived in a time before central heating. I feel like I expend half my energy just getting up to make some oatmeal, remembering to flip the switch for hot water first so it has at least ten minutes to warm up. Since my shower is outside (enclosed but not insulated) on the balcony, I do a terrific dance of jumping in in the morning. I first spend a few minutes struggling with the slide door thats off its tracks, then shed my clothes quickly, thrusting them onto a nearby chair, then try to slip into my flip-flops before running into the bathroom area and shutting the door before any of the neighbors see my bare ass. I live in one of those apartment complexes where I can only see other balconies in every direction- sort of like Rear Window. Since the water is sometimes still too cold to handle, I first use the hand-held shower head and point it away from me, and then try to set it back in place over my head while trying to keep my mouth closed and my eyes from burning (I also have to remember to take the toilet paper roll outside, otherwise it gets completely soaked). The hot water only lasts about 5 minutes, so I sort of have an ongoing rotation in terms of which body parts to wash first. The bathroom is also tiny, so I constantly try to not stumble over the broken toilet in front of me and not hit my back with the different pipes and such behind me (in fact, it's so small that I have to sit sideways when using the toilet, and the shower head still drips on my feet). Afterwards, I grab the towel from the clothesline, quickly change into real clothes with the slide door still open because it's too much of an effort to open and close it so many times. I should probably get that fixed. It's certainly going to get much worse in the next two months, so I should save the rest of this rant until then.

I bought a jacket, though. I don't love it, but after obsessing over it for a week now and having three different coats on hold, I guess I'm just happy it's over. But I continue to browse Chictopia with a jealous eye, trying to spot styles I SHOULD have bought...