I started scrubbing the toilets around 12:45 am while watching Mr Robot on demand

Isn’t it interesting the things we do to cope? I tend to clean. Obsessively. Even things that probably don’t need to be cleaned at the moment. Usually at odd hours.

I don’t think it’s a secret that I binge watch shows. Like a hipster, I did it before it was cool. With DVDs. Which is why I have so many freaking DVDs in my basement. And when Netflix came around with their streaming, I was an early adopter, enjoying the ability to watch the shows I never quite felt like buying. And then the ones I had already bought. And some I didn’t even really want to watch but, hey, it kills some time.

Having said all that, I’ve never quite been a fan of on demand. Can’t really put my finger on why, except with Dish Network. They do theirs a little weirdly, sort of streaming it to your DVR where it sits for 30 days like a rental. The majority of it (on demand) is (in my opinion) network crap on the bubble they’re trying hard to get people to watch before they decide to cancel it. Kinda like what (sometimes) ends up on Netflix.

The show Mr Robot looked interesting to me when the ads used to show up on my DVR’d episodes of Suits, but I never bit. Until this past weekend. Stuff happened. I retreated to the relative seclusion of my bedroom and went looking for something to distract me. Started with a sitcom – new sitcom – called Superstore. Entertaining and made me smile. Next, a couple episodes of Supernatural – which always entertain. Staring at my DVR, I’m going to be honest with you – I have a shit ton of stuff, series I’ve recorded, a couple of movies, the usual. And very little I actually watch. Worse than ebooks sitting on my kindle unread cuz these are free. Whole seasons of Vikings, Fargo, The Americans – all sitting there collecting virtual dust.

I clicked the on demand button on a lark. Mr Robot was one of the first shows listed. No idea why. I clicked it and was presented with an odd message: Fast forward and skip forward are unavailable for this program. Followed by: Fast forward and other functionality may not be available during this program. Weird. Good show. Interesting premise. Probably not the best thing to be watching at this moment. Halfway through, I needed to clean something.

The day started out well enough. Took a turn for the shit house around dinner time. Huge emotional drama unfolded. I hope you appreciate the vagueness of this statement and accept that it was horrible and difficult and directly led to my seeking the safety and comfort of my bedroom, the distractions television provides, and, ultimately, the menial task of scrubbing things clean.

The toilet was the beginning. Next came the mirror above the sink. Then the sink itself and counter top. Shower doors and the shower itself. Then swept and mopped the floor. Went downstairs for something to drink and scrubbed the toilet there, too, and the sink, counter and mirror. And so on.

I don’t know what it is, why it helps. Only that it does.

Is scrubbing toilets universal? Is it the thing that connects us all, since we all have to do it at some point in our lives? I suppose rich people can pay someone else to do it for them. I read somewhere that the quickest way to become rich in America is to be elected to office.

Somehow, I doubt they scrub their own toilets.