Well, for the most part, anyways. It’s not like I took the computer into the shower with me to hammer out my hilarious subtleties in between rinsing and repeating or anything.  That would just be silly and dangerous, and I’m sure would also probably void out the warranty on my laptop to boot…

But hey, you’ve got to take the inspiration wherever it comes to you in this fickle, creative world – am I right?! Whether I’m putzing down the highway stuck behind a retiree who’s driving a paltry 37 mph or knee deep in soap suds as I begin to kick off my nightly bubble bath, beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to entertaining the masses, as they say, so if my Rubber Ducky can tolerate a bit of back-and-forth brainstorming banter during our regularly scheduled bonding ritual, then float me that purple bathtub crayon and let’s get to writing!

I mean, why not – some people sing in the shower, don’t they?  Not me, of course – I learned that lesson a long time ago … just ask anyone who happened to attend the 1998 Gaylord High Talent Show, where it became painfully clear that yours truly was never really meant to be the next Steven Tyler like his 17 year-old self would’ve liked to believe!  As I belted out those high notes in Dream On like Wile E. Coyote running into the side of the cliff, my dreams of becoming a world famous rock star may have came crashing down in an avalanche of torn jeans and tie-dyed t-shirts, but then again, I’m sure all of that endless fame and everlasting glory gets boring before too long anyways.

Still, writers are pretty cool, too, and I say this not just because there’s a strong possibility that I may very well still be sporting a shampoo mohawk as I write this!  And besides, could Aerosmith really have gotten away with writing the lyrics to something like Love in an Elevator or Eat the Rich with toy boats and water-squirting octopuses and those little sponge animal thingys that grow when you dunk them in the water floating around themselves in the tub?!

Not likely, I’d say!

I guess you could say that the moral of the story is … an artist doesn’t get to choose when and where creativity strikes him. If we did, believe you me – I’d spend a lot more time gingerly typing out my weekly masterpieces on top of a pool floatie with a drink in one hand on lazy Tuesday afternoons and a lot less time banging my head against the keyboard at 3:30am on Thursday nights merely hours before my Friday morning deadlines, that’s for sure!  And sometimes are easier than others, too – they’re rare, but occasionally I find my head just chocked full of ideas and I can knock out one of these puppies first thing in the morning between brunch and lunch … and of course, there are other, far more numerous times where I catch myself being goofy in someplace like the shower and hence, “Rubber Ducky, you’re the one – you make proofreading so much fun!” somehow becomes the inspiration for a column that I’m all but ready to write off as a lost cause at that point!

The tricky part is to stay alert and not to let that creatively-charged Shangri-La slip between your soapy, wrinkled but clean little mitts when it finally does show itself…

Also, it wouldn’t hurt to have one of those rubber mats to throw down on the floor of the shower, either – just in case. I know that they may not look the coolest, but hey – safety first!