Unrelated

I've done a couple things this week that I don't really like so much, but am trying to incorporate more into my life: cleaning the bathroom and eating soup (not both at the same time, though maybe that would be the next step in the evolution of these activities in my life...hmmmm....).

I cleaned the bathroom on Monday, and I'm glad I did. Everyone knows the situation: when you can see dirt/filth on anything, everyone knows it needs to be cleaned. In fact everyone knows it needed to be cleaned awhile ago, before anything visible appeared. Now, at this point, I want to be clear that my bathroom was not disgusting. It didn't smell, nor was there anything causing repulsion, but the bathtub needed some scrubbing. That's all really. However, I do want to emphasize that virtually everything that requires cleaning should be cleaned prior to developing visible and/or olifactory conditions. We may be able to make an exception for things that get dirty in an instant, like the inside of a blender glass or the knees on a five-year olds jeans, but back to my original point: I don't like cleaning the bathroom, specifically the bathtub. It sucks. I don't have a problem with toilets at all (maybe that's weird, but a summer cleaning bathrooms at a camp will change that quick :P) and sinks are pretty easy, but I hate floors and tubs. I don't have a rational reason for this. I just can't stand them. So Monday, I did it anyway. Now they are clean and I probably won't touch them with cleaners again until they are beyond dirty (and back to visibly gross). Sad but true.

I've also been eating a lot of soup. I've never been a big soup fan. I think it relates to my lifelong avoidance of hot drinks. I mean, that's what soup is: a big, hot drink with chunkies in it. You can't call it a drink because of the chunks of meat or potato or veggies, which would cause any drinker to gag viciously! I believe that's why the whole cup-o-soup concept never really stuck (or became a staple of society)... because of the chunks. No one wants to chew a drink. It's a universal truth. Now soup is an easy food to prepare. It's easy to store and reheat. It's convenient and simple, incredible advantages for my current lifestyle! It's also extraordinarily versatile, available in a vast amount of flavors and textures, across virtually every culture in the world (every one I've experienced). It was time for me to stop denying soup its place in my culinary vocabulary. So I've been eating a lot of soup, finding it mostly enjoyable, experimenting and keeping an open mind. I've discovered that I like meat in soups. Beef and seafood more than chicken, but all are acceptable. Sausage can be great in in a cajun soup (more like a stew I suppose)! The more meat the better the soup. Now, the reason for this increasing gratification becomes obvious when I realize that this is because the soup is becoming less and less soup and more and more what I'd rather be eating: a big plate of meat. Once again, I digress. Soup is gaining on me and I suppose I'll let it hang around for some time. Perhaps I'll learn to love it.

One last sidenote: I have always loved mushroom soup for some reason. ?!? What's your favorite?