They'll never take me alive!

The laundry is overtaking me. It has grown from a basket to a pile to a mountain to an erupting volcano of clothing all over the floor of our laundry room, which is really just the front portion of our garage. The laundry grows daily as if it has been sucking down Weight Gainer 3000 when I'm not at home.

Part of me wants to throw it all into big black garbage bags and haul it all off to Goodwill, still dirty. A big part of me.

But I know I must wash it. I know I must conquer it. And once it is all smelling of Cherry and Vanilla and warm and fluffy in our closets I will feel better. I will feel accomplished.

That day will come... someday. I don't think I've ever had the laundry under control in the almost 6 years we've lived here. Once before the 2005 hurricane I think I got it pretty close, though. In my panic that we would be without power for days I decided to get all the cleaning and laundry done. I got close... but the laundry... it still won.

It always wins. The tee shirts, the jeans, the gym clothes, the underwear, and the socks. Especially the socks. They are my biggest enemy. Perhaps because they all have an accomplice, a friend. They spread themselves as far away from each other as possible so I can never get them back together again. I've tried to defeat them by bringing in teams of socks purchased 6 pair to a package from Target. Surely if there are 12 of them I'll be able to get a pair before school in the morning, right?

That's what they'd have you believe. But no, the socks are smarter than that. One bright white one sneaks itself into the pile of red clothes to wash. Now I will have no sock to match it! One sock sneaks itself into the dog's mouth, allowing it to be torn and tattered until it barely resembles a sock. Another sock works its way between the couch cushions and one behind the bathroom door. They hide in various locations until my head spins with fury.

"It doesn't matter if they match, honey, just put them on! We're late for school!"

You've won this time, laundry. But you haven't defeated my spirit... I'll be back.