I talked to my pal Tracey for a while this afternoon. It made me think of some work we did together in the past, which made me think of some work I did today. The ideas were swirling as I finished making dinner, they grew as I snuck in a workout, and then they felt almost ready to come out onto the screen as I dried my hair after my shower. I walked out of the bathroom, the one the girls have dubbed the boys bathroom…because it’s covered in mostly blue tile from the 1970s. I was heading downstairs to grab my laptop, for a later than usual slicing session. On the way, I passed the “girls’ bathroom” down the hall, the one completely covered in pink tile, along with a pink tub and a matching pink toilet. The light was on, so I stepped inside to turn it off. That’s when I saw the toothpaste.
I remember when Tracey and I were reading teachers together and we shared a room. Her kids were probably close to the age that my kids are now. I remember her telling me about the toothpaste situation at her house. “I don’t even know how they get toothpaste on the walls!” I remember her exclaiming.
Well, tonight, as my eyes made their way to the sink, I saw electric blue globs of toothpaste smeared in various spots across the white countertop (the only non pink surface in the entire bathroom). I grabbed a towel and began to chisel the toothpaste away. Like Tracey, I wondered, how do things like this even happen?
By the time I was done chiseling, the writing I had planned to do…the idea that had been forming, was in the same condition as the toothpaste…a smeared blob in my brain.
Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.
Where There's Joy 
Your process of forming an idea is so familiar. Finding connections, ruminating over it while doing something mindless, then ready to write, until something else (toothpaste!) gets in the way. Wonderful slice within a slice.
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Kids! I’ve removed toothpaste at times, too, from the walls.
Strange ..
Kevin
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Now I want to know about the idea you have swirling around in that head of yours!
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Squirrel! That’s our word for the distractions and “other things” that get in the way of that great thing we’re’ going to do in our house. I love how you share your process in this piece and how the details contribute to the development of the story. Good luck with that other idea!
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My former colleague inspired me to start slicing. She shared a piece similar to yours with me at the start. It was entitled “Approximations.” It was all about how life with kids ends up being an approximation of an idealized life that runs in your head. The chiseling is so true. It is hard work chiseling out a space, and sometimes the chiseling is the space.
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I love when a comment can turn out writing into something so much more than we imagined. You’re so right…I was chiseling toothpaste, but I was also chiseling out time and space. Thank you!
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It’s a curious question…but then again, it’s better than the clean-up in a boys’ bathroom, I think. Spoken from experience…as a boy, but never the parent of boys. I do like the way moments unexpectedly become stories during these times.
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I like the meandering feel of this slice …from a conversation, to your routine to the distractions of family, vintage bathrooms and toothpaste wondering! That idea that didn’t fall onto the “paper” just needed to cook a bit more…you just didn’t know it!
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Oh girls! I wonder what they would say or write if you asked them how it happened.
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I love how the distraction became the main focus of this piece. I’ll never understand the toothpaste situation either. It’s ridiculous. I think kids try to get it in the most random places.😜
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Hahaha! I knew where this was going when I read “toothpaste”. Funny enough, reading your slice reminded me that this morning I scraped toothpaste off the bathroom door that neither one of my kids knew anything about.
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I am happy to report the toothpaste situation gets a bit better, but agree with Peter- my teenage boy gets a few lectures now! Love how this thought process ended in a piece.
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So good, the joys of toothpaste!
I love the word ‘chiselling’ and the comparison of your idea to a ‘smeared blob’…!!
… my neatnick obsessed daughters would die reading this, so I don’t actually remember a whole lot of toothpaste problems, maybe just ‘squeeze from the BOTTOM, not the top’!
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Oh my goodness. I don’t know where their slobbish ways came from!
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Toothpaste and toilet paper (unrolled for a while in our house) and various smears of food all over the kitchen if I”m not looking. Thanks for sharing this look into your thinking process – I love how you incorporated memories and present and planning into the same post.
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Toothpaste worms! I love your description “electric blue globs.” Such fun to clean them off. I like how you compared your idea to a smeared blob of toothpaste. Sending you whatever you need for that idea to come back to you later, although this slice was fun!
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I love the way you narrate this slice! I have also spent most of a day thinking about the topic I’m planning to write, only to have it suddenly turn to a blob by something else. My kids’ bathroom vice is the soap-if you put your hand under the pump, how can it possibly end up all over the place?
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