It occurred to me, for reasons I’m not entirely certain, that I have a habit of getting out of the shower to dry off when it would really make more sense to stay in the shower to dry off because then I wouldn’t get the floor and bathroom rugs all wet. As I stood there dripping water all over the floor and rugs I realized that I have always done this ever since I can first remember bathing myself with the only exceptions being those rare occasions when there was someone else in the bathroom. Sometimes I’ll stay in the shower to dry off even when that someone else in the bathroom is my wife whom I’m otherwise perfectly comfortable being naked around. For the life of me I can’t begin to figure out why the hell I have to get out of the shower before I can dry myself off with a towel other than I got into the habit and don’t think about it enough to break it. Is there anyone else out there who just can’t bring themselves, under normal circumstances, to stay in the shower to dry off or am I the only one who’s an idiot about this sort of thing?

Another odd thing about me is that I have a hard time making use of the toilet if my wife is in the bathroom with me or the door is open. Normally I close the door anyway because I don’t wish to traumatize my 14 year old daughter, but when it’s just me and Anne at home I still habitually close the door. Of course, depending on which function I’m engaging in at the time, this could be considered a merciful thing to do, but even when I’m home alone I still close the stupid door. I suppose that’s so I won’t traumatize any burglars who happen to break in while I’m on the can. Now Anne is almost the exact opposite. She mainly closes the door when she knows that her time in there is going to leave the area with a certain… unpleasantness… that will take the meager fan in there time to clear out, not that I would ever imply that my wife is capable of causing such a situation to come about. She also has no problems with either Courtney or myself barging in while she’s in the middle of whatever she’s doing. Courtney and I are of similar mind in that we will patiently wait outside the door for Anne to finish rather than barge in unless we’re under some sort of deadline, and even then we’re not eager to violate Anne’s privacy and Anne seems to think that’s just the silliest thing she’s ever heard of. Now I’ve known plenty of other couples where being in the bathroom at the same time wasn’t a big deal regardless of what each person was doing in there at the time or what state of dress they were in, but I’ve always been overly modest in this regard and I’ve never really understood why.

Finally I just want to say that I think whoever it was that came up with clumping kitty litter fully deserves, at a minimum, a Nobel Peace Prize. This has to be the greatest thing in cat-related technology to ever come along and I am stunned when I think about the fact that the cats I grew up with as a child were deprived of this wonderful invention. Melvin loves it and I love it and it’s just an amazingly wonderful product that completely changes the chore of cleaning the cat box. How anyone can own a cat and not use clumping litter just boggles my mind.