Ask the audience #1

Margo- my mom used to relax by taking baths in this blue water, sounds weird, but I was really small and that's how I remember it. Anyway, I ruined one of her baths by bringing all the neighborhood kids in to see the blue water, ha!

...relaxing in the tub with two little kids banging on the door and screaming, "Momma you done yet??? Momma what are you doing? Momma hurry up!" And in reply, "Where is your father??!!!!????" Relax? Never.

My favorite thing to do is sit on my couch with the TV on and my feet in my little foot spa my sister gave me one Christmas.

The buzzkill? My cat. It's late, and I've been painting all evening. My bathroom is under renovations and not quite functional again. I went to my brother's and took a shower and came back with ideas of a nice relaxing 15 minutes with my feet in my foot spa. Well, I poured in a little nice, warm water and realized it was just a bit dusty and needed to be rinsed, so off to the kitchen sink to dump it. I came back and the fat furball had dumped the pitcher (which still had about a half gallon of water in it) all over the living room floor! I spent the next 10 minutes cleaning up his mess. He got banished to the cat kennel for the night. heh Maybe I should throw him in with the dog.

Definitely driving as well. It's calming to me, all I have to think about is the road.

People honking at me or speeding or just driving badly really snaps me out of it.

I love doing something outdoors that requires a lot of concentration but no mental effort. If I can get 15 minutes to do a little weeding in the garden or (even better because no bending is required) finding and pinching off suckers from tomato plants, without my husband or one of the neighbors coming by to tell me something, it's almost as good as a massage.

In the winter I get a piece of paper and plan out my garden for the next year. (If you knew how small my garden is, you'd recognize that this is purely a relaxation device, being completely beside the point in real-world terms.) And in the summer when it's too hot to enjoy the outdoors I do a cross-word puzzle, but it just isn't the same.

I'd love to say that shopping is a good relaxation technique, but that only applies when money is not one of the worries on your mind that day. I love, though, going to places like Magical Journey for a while and just absorbing the energy of the place.

The most realistic way I've found to wind down is to rent a good movie (or even better, a tv series on DVD), pick up some tasty takeout, and have a fat bottle of wine and spend the evening on the couch. This is especially effective if you can turn off the phone and if the house around you is clean.

Nothing will bust up my reverie like somebody calling me and bringing me back to reality. I also can't take naps because either the phone will ring or the neighbor will fire up the mower (which will remind me of my own lawn that needs mowing and then the 10,000 other things that I'm trying to temporarily forget). This is why drinking certainly helps with the relaxing.

I like to dress up as a french maid and bake stuff.

The best seem to be the most rare.... I love it when everyone who lives here LEAVES for a full day. It happens like once every three or four years - keeping in mind that the MiL lives here and she has no friends, doesn't drive, etc. When everyone is gone, I wallow around watching TV, reading, and unbelievably, I clean. My DREAM relaxation would be if everyone would leave except the husband and me. We could sit in the sunroom and "drink". Heh. That sounds so blissful.

Weed. But that's pretty expensive too... ;)

Movies. Best possible scenario is actually going to the theatre all by myself, getting a popcorn and a drink and watching something completely mind-numbing (preferrably a cliche ridden romantic comedy). I remember doing this when I was 39 weeks pregnant with JBelle. I'd quit my job, I was "nesting" at home and I wanted a break so I headed to the local metroplex. I saw "Where the Heart Is" & I had a bag of popcorn and a big ole coke. About 3/4 of the way through the movie, I had to make a dash to the restroom 'cause I about to burst!

Second best scenario is watching something at home, usually during naptime so that I'm not interrupted. Popcorn is optional, I tend to prefer a pint of B&J for these occassions. Again, the genre must be light-hearted and fanciful, no heavy duty thinking/emo while trying to relax! Although lately, I end up folding laundry, too...

My other one is pedicures. I heart pedicures...but they don't work well with my budget!

I'll play.

My all time favorite activity is to go out to eat with a book, come home, lie down, and read until I fall asleep. I don't get to do this anymore, but a girl can dream, right?

One afternoon, before children, I'd gone to a neighborhood restaurant eaten my fill and come home looking forward to spending time with the book I was thoroughly enjoying. It was my first day off in weeks and I had the house to myself. I opened the door, pleasantly full, completely relaxed and ready for a nap, only to be accosted by the worst smell imaginable.

We'd been adopted by a stray rottweiler and he was living with us until we could find a new home for him. I don't know what the poor thing had gotten into, but he'd managed to contract a case of explosive diarrhea. It was on the floor and halfway up the wall.

I had no idea that a creature could contain that much. I'm surprised he didn't look deflated.

I did not get my nap.