February 15th - Dirty Dishes
Dirty Dishes
I've been trying to figure out a way to enjoy doing that task for years. Yeah, I've been a dishwasher before, at a Perkins. It was rough. The other dishwashers were either felons or crazy or both. When I first moved out to Madison, in the first place I lived, I couldn't get my roommates ever to do their dishes so I established my own system that was off limits to them. I had a big pot with another pot and a skillet in there, a set of silverware, two cups, one plate, and one bowl. I did those few dishes right away after I used them, using the big pot as the washing basin. I had to fill it up with hot water from the bathtub because the sink was overflowing with stinking dishes, crusted with rotten food, old sick water, and bottle caps.
They moved out before I did and left me with the dishes. I had to wash them in the bathtub because there were so many at the end. I washed them my last night at that rental before moving out, getting drunk on wine and cursing them. I would have just thrown them away, but most of the dishes were mine. I suppose I did get a couple of nice spatulas out of it, and I think I got a George Foreman Grill too, which, if I did, I never actually used, and wasn't there a Pizazz? Did I throw that away too?
Anyway, when I was married, my wife did most of the cooking, and I got some genuine enjoyment doing the dishes as a show of appreciation, and it felt nice to have things in order.
My ma always said she liked doing the dishes in winter to warm up her hands, and she put some bird feeders just outside the window above her kitchen sink and would often call us over to see the birds. On the little lip of her window, she lined up some of her favorite bric-a-brac to keep her company.
Me, I stare at a white wall, and the overhead light was poorly wired and blinks on and off at irregular intervals. I thought I fixed it once, but it didn't take. I need to rewire from behind the cabinets and that's a big job, so it fell to the bottom of my honey-do list. It's a dismal scene: hunched over a sink next to the stained countertop and a pile of dirty dishes, but I get it done. I know you need to divide and conquer sometimes as a team, but I think my future perfect partner would want to do the dishes with me, even if she had other things she should be doing, just to hang out.
Once upon a time I had this great girlfriend and I was driving us back to her place from running an errand, just something that had to be done. I took a turn that took us on a longer route, and she said to me, "awww, you should have taken a left. It's quicker." To which I said, "sure, but I just wanted to hang out with you anyway. Here, there, what does it matter?"
So I won that one. She liked that, which was weird cuz she was always right, even when she wanted me to go left.
Enjoying those things you don't enjoy cuz you're with the right person, that's where it's at.
That is, so long as they have all those other things too. There’s also that.