Un-homed, but Not Unhinged: Showers at the Natatorium
One of the challenges in accepting un-homed status was figuring out how to handle small things like showering.
I find it鈥檚 all about rhythm and one that gets taken for granted until you try to put in a broader set of variables. Most often I go down to the Natatorium showers but there are several things that now affect my personal rhythms.
If I get there early enough I can park right by the bathrooms. If not, then it鈥檚 by the park. If the weather is cooperative then it鈥檚 a jump in the ocean. But I noticed that with the onset of winter it isn鈥檛 just chillier water. It鈥檚 also that the sun comes up behind the hotels and the Gold Coast much later so there鈥檚 just a sliver of sunlight wedged against the Natatorium wall.
Sometimes you run up against repair work and the bathrooms are closed, so it鈥檚 a head-in-the-sink kind of day. And then there are events like the marathon. You鈥檙e happy for all the runners and their sense of accomplishment (though there is no chance you鈥檒l ever see me do one) but you just know there鈥檚 no shower that day.
And of course the biggest variable to accept is a cold shower, some days chillier than others. If you go in resisting this aspect you will be unhappy guaranteed. But if you kind of relax about it, it鈥檚 manageable. It鈥檚 really in the mind anyway. So in most ways being un-homed is a state of mind, just with or without acceptance involved.
Read the first article in the Un-homed but Not Unhinged series.
