Journal of a Sabbatical

February 27, 1999

changing the shower curtain

Nancy's away for the weekend visiting a friend who's recovering from a bone marrow transplant in South Carolina. My walking buddies canceled one by one: Joan-east's mother-in-law is sick, Priscilla had to go to a funeral, Rita has too many errands to do before they go back up to North Conway. Tom and Julie were leaving for Salem when I arrived at Starbucks, couldn't talk, running late. The baristas were in a bad mood. The highlight of the morning was Sue O. telling me how she broke her arm crashing her bicycle into a family of Cham tribesmen on a motorcycle on her vacation bicycling through Viet Nam. I guess if you gotta break your arm it helps to have a good story.

I couldn't get it together to look for birds despite the gorgeous clear sky. I kept feeling like I should be home doing the nesting thing. Or working on the tree project - that list of foundations is looming over me like a giant about to stomp me - and I still haven't ordered the darn fractal plug-in. Or writing. That would be novel. That would be a joke.

I bought a new shower curtain weeks ago. Possibly months. The old one was hanging by two or three hooks this morning, and I noticed the holes had already been patched more than once. Now is the time - past the time - for all domestic goddesses to put up the new shower curtain. This should be easy right? Umm, not for the height-challenged among us.

The step ladder barely fits in the bathroom. Basically it doesn't fit in the bathroom if you actually want to use it. When it's unfolded the bottom step is flush against the vanity. I have to sort of boost myself up with my hand on the windowsill and get onto the step sideways. Then it's clear sailing to the second step. (This is one of those nice sturdy three-step ones I splurged on at Williams and Sonoma once back when I was a corporate executive).

Once up on the ladder, I tried to take the rings off one by one instead of taking the rod down. This didn't work because although I do resemble a mutant I haven't mutated into a being with far longer arms. And there was no way to move the ladder. So I had to sproing the rod out with the dragging old shower curtain on it. The rod came down just fine, but there wasn't enough room to turn it sideways without banging into the door and leaving a little smudge mark on the pristine white paint. Sigh.

I set about putting the hooks on the new shower curtain and liner. The holes in the shower curtain and holes in the liner do not line up. They are off by about an inch, too far to fake it. I finally realized that if I skipped one hole and folded the liner over so that the next hole lined up, all the rest of them would too. So there's this awkward fold in the liner. But finally, I slid the hooks onto the rod and got the rod back up without damaging the door. My accomplishment for the day. I will now reward myself with herbal tea and a good book.