You Know You're Not Spending Enough Time On Yourself When . . .

06/06/2006

. . . you find yourself shaving your legs in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

So, here's the entire story . . . .

I decided last night that I was going to soak in a bubble bath with a glass of wine (and shave my legs). But, the minute I got in the bath I was barraged with questions from the hubby and requests from the kid. Even the cats decided they needed to "watch" me take my bath. (Maybe it was the bubbles?) So, after about 5 minutes of this I decided that a long soak was not in the cards for me, so I did what I needed to do and ended the experience early.

Fast forward to this morning as I'm driving to work. I am wearing capri pants and reach down to scratch my leg. OH MY GOODNESS! I FORGOT TO SHAVE!

Now, this is really NOT that terrible in the grand scheme of things, but I cannot STAND to be wearing shorts or capris and have hairy legs.

I get a brilliant idea . . . I can stop at the store on the way in and take care of things.

So, I pull over at the Wal-Mart, go inside and buy a razor and some Dasani. (I also pick up a few other things so it doesn't look so strange - LOL!)

I go out to my car and, while hanging my legs out the driver's side door, I pour VERY COLD water on them and begin the shaving process. I'm pretty sure that I received many a strange look from passing cars. Perhaps they thought I was homeless?

Anyway, I finish up and, you guessed it, RAZOR BURN. I also managed to cut my left leg pretty badly. So, I fished in my purse and pulled out hand lotion and began the application process. Now, this lotion has some type of perfume in it that smells like . . . well . . . like an old lady. I remember that I had picked it up as a sample on a business trip and meant to toss it out! Add to this the fact that I have pretty sensitive skin . . . and we have major pain on our hands.

So, now we have legs that are ON FIRE, bleeding, stink to high heaven and are covered with burn marks. Sexy, eh?

Perhaps the hairy look would have been better? I mean, did I really think my co-workers would notice? And, if they did, would they have said something? Keep in mind that one of my coworkers has a bag-o-eyeballs on his desk . . .

I started back to work (made it on time, by the way) and started thinking . . . all of this drama could have been avoided if I had simply been allowed 15 minutes to enjoy my bath last night. Since I'm going through my mid-life crisis and am over-evaluating EVERYTHING, I start to think about the other areas of my life where I sacrifice time spent on me. I do it every hour of every day.

I think this may be very common among women. (And I'm sure there are some men out there that do this also, but I haven't met him yet.) Why do we do this? Is it genetic programming that keeps us from pampering ourselves? Or, is it because we have low self-images and somehow feel that we are not worthy of spending time on ourselves?

I don't know what the answer is . . . I'll have to ponder it more. But, I do know that I want to change this pattern of behavior in myself, and I intend to start today.

So, all my friends out there, take time to do something for yourself today, lest you find yourself shaving your legs in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

With friendship,

Care'