Since The Captain and I got engaged, I’ve gotten a lot of advice on relationships and making them work. One of those pieces was to make sure I took time to be ‘selfish’ and take care of myself. I think this is one that I need to work the most on, because a lot of the time I put other things before my own happiness or well-being. Lately I’ve been trying to pursue my own happy place and go back to being myself.

So last night I decided it was the perfect time to do that. The Captain and B have been working really hard on getting the ’23 Chevy ready for Reno’s Hot August Nights so I knew I’d have a couple of hours to pamper. Starting the night out right, I fixed myself some mini farfalle pasta with a butter pesto sauce and poured a glass of Bella Rosso sweet red wine. It was delicious! Fun fact: Bella Rosso is my new (cheaper) alternative to Roscato; apparently I really love sweet sparkling wines.

After dinner, I grabbed all the things I needed for some proper pampering: my new NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Copenhagen, LUSH’s Sex Bomb and Dorothy Bubble Bar, my new skull lantern from Michael’s and a bunch of candles, the Bella Rosso, and Netflix. While I started the bath, I listened to “Soap” by Melanie Martinez to get me in the proper mood. I lit the candles, put on the lip cream, threw my hair up, and watched in wonder as the bath bomb turned the water a beautiful shade of pink and the bubble bar did its magic.

I’m not really much of a bath person. I credit this to two things: a) my grandma got me weirdly obsessed with ‘fuzzies’ in the tub so anything floating in the water that should not be there puts me off and b) my mother sang a song about a girl getting sucked down the drain when I was little. However, thanks to the aura I created in the bathroom last night none of those things crossed my mind. I wasn’t able to see anything in the tub because the only lights I had were candles.

So with the bath full of water and everything ready, I picked out a movie on Netflix and got in. It was awesome. Not only was I enjoying a hot bath that made me feel like a mermaid, but I was also drinking my way through a bottle of wine while watching Stage Fright—a horror musical that takes place at a theater camp. I stayed in there so long I was sweating off my make-up, and even though from a distance our tub looked uncomfortable it was actually not bad. This is the first bath I’ve taken since we moved in together and I think that it was well-deserved.

Just from an hour or two of focusing on myself I realized how important it can be. I felt oddly rejuvenated after doing so and was able to take that energy and put it back into my relationship with The Captain. He also seemed happy that I’d taken the time to just be me and could tell that I was happy. After last night I plan on doing this more often, and I know that I’ll need it when school starts up again.

As to my first bath using LUSH products? I’m definitely going to go back before the year is over to stock up with more products because they are worth the money and worth the trip to Sacramento. The Sex Bomb made my skin feel so soft afterword and the color was lovely to look at. It made me feel feminine and happy and, when you’re the only girl in a house full of boys, that’s important.

Taking time to be selfish isn’t a bad thing, and if it means happiness, relaxation, and a good time then I’m going to do it more often!