On the bright side, you are wearing underwear

What I don't get is how I can sometimes be so self-conscious and other times so completely oblivious.

I have been screen printing these napkins for Betty. They have leaves printed on them. The leaves are going to be red, and the napkins orange.

I'll post pictures once they're done.

So the other night I was about to jump in the shower.

"Is that blood?"

"What?"

"Did you cut yourself?"

"What are you talking about?"

"On your stomach. And your thigh. What is that?"

I look down. "Oh. Dye."

"Dye? On your stomach?"

"I was screen printing this afternoon."

"Naked?"

"Well, in my underwear."

See, my apartment gets hot. I've had the air off because I'm never there. And when I turn it on, it takes a while to cool down.

When I bought my place, the first thing I did was paint my kitchen and bedroom. It was October, when the days were warm but the nights cool.

Nobody was available to help, and I wanted to get it done. It turned out to be a lot of labor. Especially with high ceilings. With both the taping and the painting I had to keep scooting the ladder every foot. Up and down and over and up and down and over.

I only have one window in my bedroom. And eventually, even though it was cool outside, my room was really warm. I cracked open a beer, kept painting, but it was just hot.

So at some point I stripped down to my bra and undies. It really didn't matter - I was all by myself.

As night fell, I turned on one light and then another. And then suddenly I realized that it had gotten really dark.

I realized this because I was looking across the street into the goings-on in a neighboring apartment. Because you know how when it's dark out, you can see very clearly into other people's lit apartments?

Yah. So I was hit very strongly with this chiaroscuro effect while standing on the ladder, painting the corner just next to and above the window.

Realizing that my underwear-clad ass was framed perfectly in the one brightly-lit square in the wall.