What am I Learning

What am I learning? Well, I can tell you one thing I've learned just today: The cap on the soy sauce with the neat little spouts isn't sealed. It doesn't leak. The sauce just pours out.

How did I learn this?

Well, some time last week I bought a bottle of soy sauce. It was an impulse purchase. I hadn't bought soy sauce in ages. Hadn't eaten chinese in ages either. Emotions. Sometimes they just s*ck.

Anyway, yesterday Spouse and I went shopping. Needed to purchase several of a ccertain clothing item. Mine had become so threadbare from who knows how many washings that the elastic waistbands were tearing away from the cloth. We went to a local Target Store. It was a Super Targetstore, complete with groceries. While going up and down the aisles I chanced to see big cans of La Choy Chow Mein. Now chow mein from a can is hardly my favorite (much prefer shrimp fried rice and beef lo mein - with lots of hot sauce), but I had to make myself feel better about buying the soy sauce. So I bought a can of chicken chow mein. Spouse and Son aren't keen on Chinese food at all, so I figured I would have it for lunch. Which I did. Today. (Oh. Got two packages of the clothing item. Seven per package. Only ten dollars each. I think that's a good price.)

So, just as my lunch was finishing up in the microwave, Spouse comes home. Great! We can have lunch together. I put everything on a tray and bring it upstairs. The idea was to watch television while eating. When I lay down on the bed, I set the soy sauce to the side, like I would ketchup, mustard, or bar-b-que sauce. And, like the aforementioned condiments, the bottle fell over. So what? I hadn't taken the cap off.

I put my drinks on the bedstand and poured the dry noodles onto my plate. Then I spooned some of the hot mixture on top. Then I took the soy sauce and poured some on. I remember actually pausing when I put the soy sauce on the bedstand. I thought, How could I do that without removing the cap? Then I looked at the bottle. It was nearly empty. I had only used it once. I looked at the bed. Oh. Wonderful!

I jumped up and tore the blanket off the bed and tossed it to the floor - where it immediately began to leak out onto the carpet. So I rushed to the bathroom and set it on the floor in there. It had soaked through every blanket right down to the mattress protector, which did its job. Of course, now I'm doing laundry. And my food wasn't hot when I finally got to it.

Did manage to get some writing done today. Haven't finished Chapter Three yet. In fact, Chapter Three is now Chapter Four. That scene which I needed to bring forward forces a new chapter. Hadn't counted on that. Throws off the whole schedule. That's another mess I've got to clean up. What am I learning?

Having a job that doesn't matter and fills no void in the spirit is a lot easier than trying to do something that does matter. Creativity spills like soy sauce sometimes. Sometimes it's just messy. Sigh.

Back at it.