Thoughts from the Sauna - a free write

I have been in a crappy mood this afternoon and evening, hormones etc, something one can’t really do anything about other than to wait it out. I’m leaving to Hellsinki and Kotka tomorrow so I hope sauna and a good night of sleep will help me feel better by the morning.

I’m already sitting in the sauna when I write this, but it’s only lukewarm currently, I just wanted to come and sit here while it gets hot. I have about fifteen minutes before I have to put the phone away. Well not completely away but what I like to do is listen to an audiobook while I’m in the sauna. The iPhone 7 plus I have is water resistent, but I think the heat and water combo would ruin it, so what I do is I wrap it in a towel and set it near the door, on the lowest step. So far it’s survived this treatment well, and I’ve been doing it for months. But you know the deal: don’t try this at home.

At the moment I’m about halfway through Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, and while I do like it, it’s nothing compared to her previous best seller Goldfich. I just really enjoy novels that take me to a time and place far from mine and make me imagine this different kind of world. I get pretty into it if the book is good and to me, it’s like watching a movie inside my head. Or better yet; living inside the book, the sights, sounds, smells, everything very vivid.

My mind wanders all over the place when I’m in the sauna, even when I’m listening to a good book. I find myself entertaining ideas, then I have to go write them down, then I start to think about some people, and all sorts of random things, noticing that I’ve missed another 15 minutes of the book and I need to start the chapter again.

It’s getting hot in here, I need to hurry, I’m starting to sweat.

Interesting thing about sweating in the sauna, if you have never been to a proper sauna, you won’t know this, but it isn’t nasty or smell bad when you sweat in the sauna. I don’t know why that is, but you can sweat your ass off and it doesn’t smell bad at all.

I like some weird smells sometimes and today as I was soaking up the sun for the first time this year, I was reminded of what the skin smells like when it’s basking in the sun. If you have no lotions or scents on your skin and you bake in the sun, the skin has a very distinctive scent, probably different for everyone, but it’s a good one. At least mine is but I can’t really describe it as anything else than it smells of warm skin.

Well this turned out a bit weird but hey, that is what freewrites are for, right?

Now I’m pressing play on the book and wrapping up the phone in a towel.