ode to an appliance

DISHWASHER
It is very difficult to try to load someone else's dishwasher; everyone has their own method. Glasses stacked in this row, bowls this way, silverware facing up, down--it's a highly personal thing. The few times someone outside the family has loaded ours, I open it up and am disoriented, dismayed even, to find plates in the wrong slots, bowls on the top (the top?!), and even a skillet crammed in there. It's just too counter-productive and unsettling, even though it is nice of them to try and help.

(excerpt from "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Mind" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, pg. 88)

if you know me at all, you know that i LOATHE washing dishes. you may also conclude that i have an on-going love affair with my dishwasher--my most favorite appliance *ever*.

what it is about the dishwasher anyway? i don't even like it when ken loads it. it's like i have this map in my mind of where everything goes & why. you can't mess with it. i don't even know how i came to this method of dishwasher-loading but it is just one of the "rules" now. i will actually go in there & rearrange things if someone else puts them in "wrong". i used to think i had issues but this entry confirms that i am not the lone freak on this topic.

this reminds me: time to go UNload this wonderful contraption. because if someone else does & the stuff doesn't get back into its proper home in cabinet or drawer, that will bug me as well. i really ought to make a little legend or tags or something so that there are no excuses for the misplacing of dishes anywhere & then maybe i could NOT do it all myself for once...