Soap and Water

When I was two years old my mother would put out a green plastic tupperware bowl with a squirt of yellow dish soap and warm water and a big pink sponge out on the gravel driveway and I would sit there playing, engrossed for hours.

In college I got a job washing dishes at a fancy Italian restaurant. When I called home to tell my mother I loved my job she screamed back at the top of her lungs
YOU'LL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING IF YOU LIKE WASHING DISHES!

When I ran away from home I stayed at a house with seven university students while I hunted for a job and an apartment, I baked bread and washed the dishes - they let me stay for weeks!

When I visit people, I always wake too early, and after supper I'm often too shy to socialize, so in both cases I sneak into the kitchen and wash the dishes. I am usually invited back.