Five for Friday: Disgusting Stuff

Happy Friday everyone!

Theme: Really Disgusting Stuff

1. Milk Crust: that crust that forms around the cap of the milk jug? Yeah, that’s disgusting. Milk should never be in a solid form. Am I the only one whose stomach turns when I see that?
2. Water beetles: not the water spiders, those guys are okay. I am talking about water beetles. They look like cockroaches, but they like to live in the shower, and give me a rude awakening in the morning. One evening while I was still in high school, I stayed up late working on an English paper (yes, I was a nerd in high school, how did you guess?). I decided to take my shower that night so I could sleep in a few more seconds. To my disgust, when I walked into the bathroom, there was a large water beetle hanging out on the side of the shower. Like the strong-willed, headstrong female I am, I did what was best: I called in my twin brother to squash it. He brought his boot in (after rolling his eyes at me) and tried to hit the bug. It skittered away, and he hit the hot water faucet instead. Apparently the faucet was old, because the handle fell off, and water shot out to the other end of the shower. We grabbed the handle quickly and replaced it, and then looked at each other, silently wondering what to do. It was about that time that Mom came into the bathroom, going on about how much noise we were making, and we were going to wake up our father, and did we know how late it was, and what were we doing? We looked at each other, shrugged, and my twin let go of the handle. Water shot across the shower again. Mom simply said, “I’ll get your father.”

**For the record, I don’t think it’s okay to just squash every bug in sight, and I believe all life is sacred. And I am not afraid of all bugs, just the freakishly large, nasty water beetle ones.

3. Mold: when you haven’t realized the corn muffins are growing mold, heat it up in the microwave, put butter on it, and take a big bite. It tastes a little funny, but hey, you just woke up so maybe your taste buds aren’t awake yet. Two bites later you see the mold, and feel like you’re going to hurl. What’s a little extra penicillin, right?
4. Spam Juice: that whitish juice looking fluid in canned meat, like Spam. As if the meat didn’t already look gross as it is, the processed meat is packaged in some sort of juice. Gross.
5. Soap scum: the scum that accumulates in the shower. I have very long hair, so I have to pick it out of the drain, and usually get a good view of the soap scum before I spray it with cleaner.

And that concludes today’s Five for Friday. Kinda gross, I know, but I find it useful for description if I throw something “real” into the book every once in awhile. Try to become a vigilant observer of life; how people look, smell, how they talk, the fine detail in the rooms around. Even just a few details will make your novel come to life.