Friday Timewaster: Cleaning

I was actually on time to work this morning . . . until I spilled the remains of last night's cherry ICEE all over the driver's seat of the car while I was attempting to exit the vehicle and thus had to waste about ten or fifteen minutes on damage control. 

The spillage was actually pretty equal opportunity: The floor mat got in on the action, too. Luckily it was one of the protective mats that the dealer puts over the nice mats. After 2.5 years I had worn holes in parts of it anyway and it was totally grotty with assorted dirt and debris, so I just took it out and threw it away.

Another bonus: I had an assortment of napkins from your finer fast-food establishments stashed in the pocket behind the passenger seat, so I was able to deploy those to strategic blotting positions relatively swiftly. And I actually had a bottle of upholstery cleaner in the trunk from the last time I spilled something*, so I sprayed that on the affected areas and used paper towels from the office kitchen to get most of the redness out.  The seats are gray, anyway, so it probably won't look too bad when it dries.

Once the car seat was under control, I had to whip out my Tide-to-Go pen** and address the pink splotches on my tan pants. They're scattered near my right ankle, and I think they're not that noticeable. Of course, I do have on a pink button-down and my two-tone gray/pink floral Chucks today, so the splotches kind of coordinate with my outfit. And really, that's always my ultimate goal: To wear something the same color as the foodstuff I will somehow manage to spill on myself. 

So, mission accomplished!

*Correction: The last time I bothered to clean up after I spilled something several months earlier. I think I spilled something on the floor of the passenger side around Thanksgiving 2007 and only bothered to try cleaning it in May 2008, and that was only because my mom was going to be riding to Chautauqua with me and I didn't want her to feel bad about raising a slob. 

** A birthday gift from my sister, who apparently knows me all too well.