In a Pinch

It is weird how smells can take you back immediately to your past.

Last night I had brushed my teeth and I was getting out the Listerine for a little wash. When I opened the bottle, the smell totally reminded me of another mouthwash from my past, Cepacol.

When I was about 8 years old, my cousin discovered a hernia on me when we were in the bathtub together. I had to have surgery for it not long after that. At the hospital in my hometown, they gave you a little basket of goodies (or at least I thought they were goodies) to take with you when you leave. One of the items was a little bottle of Cepacol mouthwash. I remember having that mouthwash forever after my surgery. I never really used it but I kept all the stuff from the hospital for a long time. I can't remember all that was in that pack except for the Cepacol (which tastes as bad as Listerine by the way), and that is mostly because of the smell.

Anyhow, when I smelled the Listerine last night, it reminded me of the Cepacol, and how I held onto it for so long. It also reminded me that I guess I am a bit of a hoarder. I feel weird leaving hotel rooms without using all the items they give you to use. If I don't use them, then I take them with me, "just in case". At one point when J and I were traveling a lot, I had a whole collection of mini shampoos, soaps, and lotions. I still have sewing kits from all over Asia in my suitcase.

I pride myself on my preparedness. I have enough stuff in my backpack at all times to deal with almost any kind of minor emergency (cuts, stains, bugs, hunger...etc). I keep a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and Shout wipes in my car. I am thrilled when I am called upon to provide rescue in a situation.

While my hoarding sometimes makes more work for me than I would like, I think J has come to know that he can count on me being prepared. He knows that if he uses the last papertowel, there is always an extra roll in the pantry. We were at a picnic with some friends a while back, and someone had gotten something sticky on their hands, and he knew he would find sanitizer in my backpack.

When we lived in Japan, I was always kind of excited about our annual typhoon season (partly due to my preparedness and partly due to the fact that I love storms of any kind) because it would be a test of my emergency system....in fact, before 2000, I had batteries and water stored up just in case. Now of course, I am not fanatical about it. We don't own a generator or have stores of gasoline hidden on our property, but I just like knowing that I can handle most things that might (but usually don't) come my way.

I am not sure where my desire to have back up came from. I guess I don't like running out of stuff, and enjoy coming to the rescue. I don't think it stems from anything in my childhood as we always had what we needed and there was never any kind of big disaster that we were left stranded in. I guess it is just part of my personality, I like being able to be counted on in a pinch.