Glass Walls

After two years of mopping up overspray with a spare towel, I finally have glass walls on my shower! I still can't quite wrap my mind around the change. The glass is 1/2 inch thick, and though it is perfectly clear to look through, the edges turn a smoky color in the light. The room is somehow partitioned now, as though the shower is a separate space, even though visually nothing has really changed and you can still see right through it. It's interesting the way the mind plays these tricks, deciding when there is a wall, and when there isn't, despite what you can "see."

It reminds me of another glass door, when I was a child. I must have been six or seven years old. My family's home had a large backyard, with a metal swingset and a sandbox, and a concrete patio reached by descending three concrete steps from the sliding glass door in the dining room. My friends and I played outside all summer long, and left the door standing open to more easily run inside and out. Until one day, I ran at my typical full tilt into the house, and *splat!* I was like a bug on a windshield. I bounced off that door and onto the patio before I even knew I had hit anything. Evidently my mom had cleaned the glass, and closed the door, and the rest of the story is obvious. I've heard some version of this over and over from others; does every kid at some time flatten themselves against a clean pane of glass?

I hope I don't walk into my new shower glass in an early morning blur, forgetting that I have it!