Notes From A Cleaning Flashback

When I was just a young neurotic cleaner, probably.....uh.....10?, I remember doing the dishes when I got home from school, so that mom would be proud of me when she got home.

Actually, looking back, I'm shocked that there were any dishes to wash when I got home. Mom always washed the dishes after dinner and then when dishwashers came along, we had to load the dishwasher right after dinner so there were never, ever any dishes stacked up in the sink, NEVER IN THE SINK, or on the countertop by the sink. Anyway....I digress....

So I wanted to wash the dishes for mom and I had seen her using those pretty blue SOS pads that had all that soap in them. How convenient! I ended up washing a ton of dishes using nothing but an SOS pad. I think she got home right as I was finishing up, or I told her afterwards I had used the SOS pad, but I remember her face very well.

"Oh....gee....thank you, sweetie..." There was pride, there was humor, there was exhausion at the thought have having to wash all those dishes again with regular dishsoap.

I just washed my cookie sheet and had to break out an SOS pad. And I thought of that day. I always think of that day when I use an SOS pad. My mama, so proud of her baby girl for cleaning up. I can't remember how she told me that the soap in the SOS pad wasn't for washing dishes, but she got the point across somehow without making me cry because I had done such a stupid thing. And I usually cried when I disappointed my mama.

What's the point of the little story?

It's amazing the things that make me homesick. Like using an SOS pad.

I cannot wait to see my folks next Saturday. I can't believe I made it through this summer and fall without blowing $1000 on a plane ticket to Houston just to get a hug from them. There were days when I would lay in bed, my cell phone on speakerphone and on the pillow beside me, and talk them, and cry to them, for over an hour. And life always seemed so much better when we'd hang up.

Anyway. Those days are behind me. A new year is around the corner.
And I'm out of SOS pads now.