Every Real Grown-Up Should Have…

… the right to hole up in a candlelit bathroom for an hour, with a bit of music and privacy to boot.

I’ve been in a bit (okay, more than a bit) of a funk lately due to end-of-the-semester stress, exams, etc., and at the end of my work day today I felt truly awful and sick to my stomach and like I was at the edge of a nervous breakdown. After eating a mediocre spinach salad and sitting around doing other mediocre-type things, I decided, “To hell with mediocrity!” and started filling the tub.

I still have hours of homework to do tonight, and I’ll be pushing tonight’s midnight deadline on a couple of assignments, but it was totally worth it. Mama used to do this for me when school or life made me hysterical; she’d fill the tub with really hot water and a bit of lavender oil, light some candles, and shut me up in the bathroom until I was good and calm.

It still works: My bath was anything but mediocre. Our bathroom is also basically a shrine to relaxation, and I had to take a picture because it looked so pretty and inviting after I lit all the candles.