A Kitchen Confession

I want to preface this post by saying two things. First, if you are about to eat or having just ate and have a weak stomach, come back to this entry later. Second, I am not a total slob and live in a pretty clean environment. Yes, I occasionally indulge in the bachelor lifestyle but I wash clothes on a very regular basis and the dishes as well...except for this one time. And it will be the last.

So, I have had a busy few days. I have been subbing for different classes and had a big meeting in Himeji that I had to attend. For the past two nights, I was put up in a very nice hotel and lived it up in a bigger city which was nice. Today, I came back to the apartment, it’s been pouring rain and I was soaked to the bone. I dropped my luggage in the doorway and then ran to the grocery store to grab some hamburger to make something for dinner. Upon returning from the store, I jumped in a hot, refreshing shower and was thankful to be home again. After getting out of the shower, I decided to do some dishes that I had left in the sink, having forgotten to do them before I left a couple of days ago. When I left, I did so in a hurry because I did not realize that my hotel accommodations started on Sunday night instead of Monday. My boss's was being nice to me and rewarding me for doing some favors for her over the past month or two. Either way, when I left Fukuchiyama, I did it in a hurry, and left dishes in the sink.

Now to be totally honest, the dishes had been there for a day or two before that. I had good intentions of doing them but either things came up or by the time I got home from some kind of long days, I didn't want to do them and put them off. Never, ever, ever, ever, will I do that again.

When I started to clean the dishes, I realized that there had been some pieces of hamburger left in a pan and mentally chewed myself out for leaving it for so long because I did not want to get cockroaches and whatnot. I have been fortunate having only seen two very small cockroaches ever in my apartment. By small I mean smaller than a house fly small. These are not uncommon in most parts of Japan and so I have not felt bad about them, they keep me on my toes. Well, after chastising myself, I see the second of the two cockroaches I have ever seen in here, and as I said, it was very small and I did not think much of it. I was mad at myself and in my mind, had narrowly avoided getting a bigger cockroach.

Then I noticed something. On the wall to the left of my sink, there were a couple of bits of either rice or something from the spaghetti I had made sticking to it. So I brushed them off but noticed that when I brushed them, they kind of squished and were gooey. Hmm. Odd. Then I saw the first living maggot I have ever seen in a household. My parents are clean people and they raised me to be that way as well, but sometimes I have been known to slack off in that area. Never again will I let my dishes set in the sink. Over the course of the fifteen minute dish washing session, I found a few more live maggots and a handful of the ones that had dried up and died. At that point, I wanted to die as well. There isn't a lot that can cause me to lose my appetite but that did it. Especially, when one crawled on my finger.

After finishing off the dishes, I washed all of my food preparation area with soap and ran scalding hot water in my sink for a few minutes. I also took the dish rag and the towel I used to dry the dishes and put them outside. Then I took another, hotter shower. I scrubbed hard and realized that I was almost reenacting the scene from the Crying Game, frame by frame.

After getting out of the shower, I washed my hands and came out here to type this post. I hang my head in shame and want the entire world to know, I usually am a pretty clean person but I messed up and paid the ultimate price. Don't let this happen to you.

This public service announcement was brought to you by your friends at the Council For A Bug Free Kitchen. Please do your dishes regularly.