Big Blue

When I was in college, I lived on the fourth floor of a school apartment building. The dorm-like room was equipped with two bedrooms and two study rooms. (I use the term “study” loosely you understand, first time away from home and all…) It had a shared bathroom with a shower and small living room. The “community kitchen” was downstairs on the first floor.

My roommate Margaret and I filled “our pad” with houseplants of every description. We draped the institutional gray block walls with paisley print Indian bedspreads from Cost Plus. We collected colorful empty beer bottles in our window and burned a lot of incense. We got a cat, a rabbit and a beanbag chair. It should have been “home” but something was missing.

One day as I was browsing the local second hand store, I found it. In a neglected corner of the shop, tucked under a pile of vintage “Life” magazines and several rusted bird cages was a baby blue bathtub!

I paid for the tub and rushed back to enlist the help of my boyfriend to get it back home. None of us had cars so he and I carried “Big Blue” the 10 blocks or so back to Oxtoby Hall. I’m not sure how we managed to get it up to the fourth floor but soon we had the shower door off and Big Blue was perched on top of several metal milk crates I’d “borrowed” from my job at Knudsen’s Deli.

The tub was filled using a piece of hose attached to a plastic funnel hanging by a rubber band from the showerhead. It drained directly into the shower, elevated on the crates.

I was the Bath Queen!

When my mother came to visit some months later, I gave her The Bathing Experience of a Lifetime (she said). The plant-filled room was lit by candlelight, soft, dreamy music wafted in from through the open door, the bath water was delightfully scented and lavender in color (as I recall). She said that being elevated on the milk crate pedestal enhanced her “Cleopatra-like” experience in Big Blue. She was in Heaven. It felt great to have a hand in such enjoyment!

It’s deja-vu for me now when I think of sharing more Great Bathing Experiences with the world through the Vine and Weaver websites. I believe I’ve truly found my calling.

I don’t read the newspaper, watch TV or keep up with current events. I am not going to go out and protest, picket or write my congressman. But I CAN change the world, YOUR world, by offering delicious, natural, earth-friendly products that foster well-being, promote relaxation, nourish the body and mind and improve the quality of life for all who use them.

So my friends, that is my mission: Change the World for the Better: One Happy Soaker at a Time!