Barbako

After a little thought in the latest pages of the Humanvarition thread in GBS proper, I've decided to make my own thread here.

See, I type this thread fresh out of the shower. It's 6:22 EST on August 2nd, and I believe the last shower before this was the night of July 18th or 19th. If I didn't check my blog to jar my memory for this date, I'd have simply told you that I don't fucking remember.

I'm 18, 19 in September, and as long as I can remember, I've not given two shits about bathing. It was never even an issue in my mind. The dirtiest play I partook in since reaching the "bathe yourself, damn kid" age was getting elbow-deep in a mud puddle or hole in the backyard. I always washed myself off thoroughly in the kitchen sink right after coming back inside. I hated and still hate being overtly "dirty", and that damn mud puddle was my only exception. But I digress. To this day, I simply do not register showering as anywhere near a daily activity. It takes a damn good reason to get me to wash off unless I feel "dirty".

I really can't say exactly where this mindset (or lack thereof) about bathing stems from. My parents simply dropped the ball on raising me properly in a lot of ways, from chores to eating habits. Bathing just happened to be one of the areas they neglected. I was bathed in the tub by my parents for an embarrassingly long time... I can't recall the age at the moment, but maybe that's for the better. Even then, however, I always remember baths not being very common, nor consistent. So there's my good old "my parents raised me badly" excuse. (Very far from the truth, just FYI. Not parents of the year, but they didn't kill me, eh?) For reference, my dad takes a shower at least every two days because of his job and yardwork, but my mom is a lazy unemployed useless woman who is just as bad as me, if not worse. When I hear her taking a shower, I think . ... ugh.

I've also just been incredibly lazy and had poor self-pride my whole life. Only the later stages of teenage society and getting a long-term boyfriend managed to mold me to care a little what I looked like before I left the house. And this is what it took to get me to my CURRENT habits, mind you. My usual response to the "why don't you shower?" question by my peers is a simple "I never get around to it". Procrastination is huge in my life, even with things I WANT to do, and my hygiene definitely reflects this. Even when it does come to mind, I either find a distraction (play a little more of this game, sleep/food is sounding very good right now) or figure that it doesn't matter, I'll still look like shit. The main visual telling of my length of time without washing is my hair, and thanks to my trich, my hair will still be a major appearance flaw regardless.

Then, as this last shower showed me, I just don't get the "good feeling" most people do after showering. If I was sweating like a pig from exercising or something, I'll feel relieved at most. But a normal shower, taken simply because it's been too long? I'll come out feeling the same as I went in, maybe even a little worse. This one I seem to be alone on, so I'm just putting it under my "crazy" trait list.

Just for giggles, I'll also say that I don't brush my teeth enough or brush my hair every day like I should (I have nearly-waist-length hair). I do enjoy flossing, even though my gums bleed, and I have a bit of OCD about my fingernails, toenails, and washing my hands. Also, this is a time-sensitive excuse, but my mother is currently suffering a skin problem she calls her "merser" (MRSA), though I don't know what it really is, because I'm pretty sure it ain't MRSA. Still, she has these horrible sores all over her and I'm terrified in the back of my mind every time I go into the house's single bathroom. And I already avoided the shower if I knew she'd taken one recently.

This is droning on and on, and starting to go in circles. So that's that. I'm gross. Feel free to mock me (it motivates me to improve, sickly enough), ask questions, or share your own shameful bad habits or lack of good habits.