So when I was a kid, my job was to put the dishes into the teeny-tiny apartment-sized dishwasher. And as I was growing older into a teen, my mom trusted me to roll it over to the sink when it was full. I had to pull out the hose and attach it on the faucet. But before I attached it to the faucet, I had to run the water in the sink until it was hot, to make sure it was hot water going straight into the dishwasher. And after it was all done, I would disconnect it, open it back up, and put the clean dishes away.
In this way, I got out of all dishwashing by hand, which, for some reason, I hated. Maybe it was just the standing there. I also hated standing by the stove to stir tapioca pudding. But at least you have something good to eat after that. And I would read a book while stirring.
But as far as dishes were concerned . . . When I was little, I liked helping my mom with dishes. There were just the two of us in the kitchen after meals, and she taught me how to take the corner of the dishcloth and stick it down inside the glass, and then rub it around . . . pull it out, rinse it. And I liked all that, but however, my hands broke out in eczema, and so, the rest of my life, basically, my mom did the dishes herself because she didn't want me to have "dishpan hands."
And I tried with gloves from time to time, but I didn't like that either. If it was her birthday, or Mother's Day, I would say, "Well, since you asked me, and since it's for your present, I'll wash the dishes this one time." I was never very magnanimous about it. I was very grudging, in fact.
So, after I grew up, I was in college, and my parents bought this mobile home, and my name was on the deed of the building as well, and we rented the lot. I was in charge of paying for the lawn service monthly and things like that. My parents went back to Japan, and I was in the mobile home during the summer, while I was in college. I mostly lived in the dorm during college time, and I liked that, but I also had the opportunity to go home Friday night and come back Saturday night, and Mimi (my mother's mother) would often be there.
But when it was the whole summer, and I was working in the Tampa Bay area, Mimi went back to the east coast of Florida, and it was up to me to do all my own grocery shopping, all my own cooking, and yes, all my own dish-washing. We did not have a dishwasher! And I was so lazy that I would buy paper plates and paper bowls and paper cups, and I would do my own cooking.
I was so against washing dishes by hand that I would wait till they really piled up, and then I would put on a musical in the living room on the TV and listen to Fiddler on the Roof or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers to take my mind off how icky the dishes were and how much I hated doing them! (I would never have married Motel the tailor or Adam Pontipee - too much work.)
One time I even left for a trip, taking the pan of dishes and sticking it in the fridge to wait a week till I came back. That worked out fine for me! So just take note - if you're ever leaving, and you run out of time, stick the bin of dishes in the fridge, and they'll be fine.
Then what happened was: My mom and dad moved back into the mobile home, and it turned out they were going to stay there longer than expected. My mom was not enjoying washing the dishes either, and I wouldn't step up to the plate (get it, "plate"?) to do that. So my mom said, "I think there's such a thing as a countertop dishwasher." This was not a normal size kitchen, you know - it was little. It was easy to get in and out of, but there was no extra space to put in a real, full-size dishwasher.
So she ordered this thing, and it sat on the counter, and you were supposed to connect it, and it would wash your dishes for you. It was supposed to take four place settings at once, and there were only three of us in the family, so that seemed good. So she gets this thing out, and starts fiddling with it, trying to read the directions.
And she gets so mad at me, because she thinks it's not going to work the way it's supposed to, and it's all my fault, because I distracted her while she was looking at the details. And obviously, it was not a good choice, and we're doomed, and she went on and on . . .
And I was like, "What in THE world is the matter? It's not that bad, you know?"
But she was very upset. And all of a sudden, it starts to spray water, like, out all over us - particularly out all over my mom. I thought it was HILARIOUS. To me, that was very funny, and I really wanted her to join me in laughing, and she would not. She was frustrated STILL! And there was no levity involved.
But she finally did figure out how to use it, and it wasn't a problem - whatever the huge problem was, it wasn't a problem after all. Whew!
Here's to not having so many dishes to do!
"THEN NAOMI HER MOTHER-IN-LAW SAID UNTO [RUTH], MY DAUGHTER, SHALL I NOT SEEK REST FOR THEE, THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH THEE?"