International Showers

Somewhere, inside pretty much every international airport, there is a place where you can get a shower.  Sometimes they are public and anybody can get at them; other times you have to get access to one of the airline lounges, either by being a frequent flyer or paying for a day pass.  If you can get at that shower, though, it can make a world of difference.  Last night, before getting on my overnight flight from Miami to London, I got a shower in the American Airlines lounge, making up for not really being able to clean my hair properly for the last week.  Then, while waiting to connect in Heathrow, I got another shower in the British Airways lounge, and washed away all of that red-eye flight nastiness that builds up when you've spent a night neither really sleeping nor not sleeping.  In both showers, the water temperature was kind of unstable (each in its own special way), but who cares: it was a few minutes of perfect quiet solitude and self-care, and by the time I stepped out, I was clean from my toes to my teeth and with a much more settled and stable mind, ready to face the next step of my voyage.