Broken Sinks and Quarters

Moving out of your parents’ house comes with its challenges.  For instance, did you know that you can’t get quarters like, anywhere?  That’s right.  Quarters have quickly become scarce for me.  I didn’t think you could go to a bank unless you were affiliated with them, and I didn’t have time to find one.  However, I have been informed that I can indeed get quarters there, so, problem solved!

I tried asking the help desk at Target, but the lady said they wouldn’t give me any quarters.  Ugh.  And the ATM didn’t give me anything but $20 bills.  No luck there, so I sauntered over to the gas station.  Google had told me that gas stations would give you quarters if you asked for them.  It said it on the internet, so it must be true 😉

Unfortunately, the gas station attendant didn’t seem to understand my desperate need for quarters.  She seemed kind of annoyed, actually.  Later I learned that they are SUPPOSED to give you change in quarters if you ask them, but it’s a pain, so they don’t.  She did, however, give me $1 worth of quarters, which was just barely enough for me to do my laundry this week.

My next challenge came later that night.  I had just finished cooking dinner for myself (and for the whole next week…it’s hard to get used to cooking for just one person), when the sink clogged.  Water would not drain, the sink was starting to fill with water, and the garbage disposal wasn’t helping to unclog it.  To make matters worse, the pipe underneath the sink was starting to drip water.  Oh no…

Well, apparently, you can’t put potato skins, carrot skins, or anything like that, down your garbage disposal.  I may or may not have done exactly that.  Innocently.

I mean, how was I supposed to know that would happen?  It’s not like I learned something like that in school (because they teach you useful things in school, not that useless stuff like proper garbage disposal etiquette).  Honestly, there should be a class in school of do’s and don’t’s so that when young people move out, they know these things.  But thank goodness I know how to solve algebra problems.  What would I do without that bit of knowledge?

There are other things too…like how to navigate your way in public transit by yourself, cooking, cleaning, budgeting, being able to manage time, and a bunch of other stuff, that you don’t learn until you have to.  It’s like school was preparing me for lots of things, but living on my own wasn’t one of them.  Why didn’t school teach me how to do any of the things I need to get by?

Now I’m not bashing school in ANY way (in fact, I was trying to be humorous in case that wasn’t obvious).  I loved school (for the most part) and I am continuously learning, reading, and expanding my mind.  I’m just wondering why, if school is supposed to prepare us for life, it doesn’t prepare us for the immediate essentials to living on your own.  I guess that’s what parents are for 🙂

My parents have been awesome at teaching me these things.  All through my growing up years, I have learned so much about cleaning, working out, cooking, budgeting, and so much more from my parents.

So (now that I’ve come to the end…) I guess this blog post is to all you parents out there.  In the middle of trying to get your kids to do their homework, teach them where to get quarters, and what not to put down the garbage disposal 🙂

Love you, mom and dad 🙂

 

Until next time,

Hope Frances

 

Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash