Discoveries

You know how sometimes you get so used to the way something is done that every other way seems ridiculous? I have recently discovered that I do that, you know...I have been raised doing things a certain way and that's just how it is. Fortunately for me, I have made some discoveries (with the help of roommates) that have quite literally changed my life.

1. Swiffer Mops

I won't lie, I didn't give these a chance at first because I simply didn't understand how they worked. I know I know...just put a mopping pad in the little poky circles on the back of the mop, clean your floor, then dispose. Easy. For some reason I thought that filling a bucket with water/cleaner and wetting an overused, dirty old mop to just spread the dirt more evenly across the kitchen floor was a good idea. Gross. Swiffers get the job done quite efficiently, plus it dries WAY faster.

2. Minute Rice

I've always loved rice. Even after eating it every single day in Ecuador, I'm still not sick of it. I always boil twice as much water as I want rice (and I ALWAYS end up making way too much) and then add the rice. The bottom of the pan is always stubborn and difficult when I want to wash it, and the rice never turns out to be that sticky. Or cooked. Bless my heart. On top of all that it always boils over and leaves the stove awfully messy and smelling like burnt rice. I also LOVE love LOVE soy sauce. Rice is a definite essential in my diet. Although Minute Rice is actually 5-minute rice, I still want all those boxes of Minute Rice out there to know how much I appreciate them. You are truly underrated. Thank you for enhancing my life with the carbohydrates I am greatly lacking because of my gluten intolerance.

3. Beef Jerky

There is something about beef jerky that slightly grosses me out. I think it's mostly the really strong smell it leaves so pungently everywhere it goes. I can only remember having beef jerky on the Pioneer Trek, and it was unbelievably delicious at the time. I'm sure anything would have been. When BJ asked me if I liked beef jerky, I responded with a confident "no!", along with great efforts to portray as accurately as possible my pure disgust via text message.  His question sent beef jerky floating through my brain, so when I walked into a gas station to buy Peri a water and passed the beef jerky, I HAD to get some. I didn't have a clue what flavor to get, and actually didn't know that different flavors existed until this very experience. I think I picked teriyaki steak or something. I gnawed on that beef jerky the whole way home and you know what I decided? As long as you don't actually think about what you're eating it's really not so bad.