dancing on a dime

The claw-footed tub was beautiful. But I never thought people would routinely shower in it—figured they'd prefer the outdoor shower like the rest of us. Nope.
   So after four years, I decided to correct this design flaw and put in a stall shower. There wasn't really room for a prefab one, so yesterday Sam and I figured out how to fit a tiled one in. It will work. You'll see.
   Back when I was a young writer at People magazine, we had to fit a lot of information into a little bit of space. (This was when there were facts in the mag rather than pictures of bad clothing choices.) My mentor called this kind of writing "dancing on a dime." Apparently, I have not lost this skill, because after writing my most recent story this summer, my editor wrote, "One of my lifelong passions is jazz because I've always been amazed by musicians who can improvise within a very structured harmonic and rhythmic form and create what Whitney Balliett of the New Yorker called the 'sound of surprise.' You have a similar gift, and it is very rare." Rare praise.
   Given the constraints—water, controls, pipes, shower head, enclosure, human sizes—we will attempt an improvisation on a shower. Take it away, Sam!