Life with one car can be a little challenging.

Eric has the car during the week to get to & from work and I get the car on Saturdays to do the weekly commissary run.

When I was back home in Texas, waiting on my approval to come to Korea, I got in a routine. Every Saturday morning, bright & early, I was up & out the door to take the car to the car wash.

I felt a certain satisfaction cleaning it out. It gave me a feeling of accomplishment.

Now that we share a car, cleaning it out takes on a whole new meaning. And last Saturday was my first day to get back into that routine.

Turns out there’s a car wash on base. It’s got 3 stalls & an interesting dispenser system.

So let’s see….what do we have here?…

• Eric’s bright orange PT vest (all the soldiers have to wear them when they run)
• An empty water bottle or two
• An empty, SlimFast can….ooh!…Chocolate Royale
• Work phone rosters
• Work detail rosters
• Work schedule rosters (you get the point)
• An empty plastic bag
• A handful of American & Korean coins
• Ahh…and dog treats for the little one

(And that’s just the front seat.)

What does that say?…

[reading slowly aloud]

‘Use only soap dispensed at this facility.’…huh.

‘Use of any other soap, detergent, cleaning compound or solvent is prohibited.’…huh, really?

‘The use of these items damages the oil/water separator causing contamination of the stormwater drainage system.’

Well, ok…if you say so.

So does this thing take American coins or Korean?

Hmm…can’t really tell just yet. The Moogeo Self Company ‘Clean World’ system is apparently lacking that useful bit of information. Maybe there’s another sign somewhere?

[looking around]

Nope. Nothing….So how do you work this thing anyway?

Ahh, good…3 options…& they’ve graciously labeled them in English.

It turns out the Mr. Moogeo Clean World system takes American quarters….a whoppin’ 4 of them at a time.

And for a brief 30 minutes I got to feel normal again.

I never used to crave routine before.

(At least I  don’t think so. That was “BE” – Before Eric, about 6 years ago now.)

But being an Army wife who deals with nothing but chaos, uncertainty & life-alterring decisions made for us by the Department of Defense on a regular basis…well, let’s just say I’ve come to love routines. They ground me.

The smell of the industrial-strength soap. The feel of the water misting on my feet. Normalcy.

That is until I look up & remember where I am.

The car wash at home had a 7-11 next door & believe it or not, a stall just for washing your dog with a fenced-off dog playground in the back.

Great…now I’m craving a Big Gulp Cherry Slurpee.