6. Give me your morning. Breakfast, waking up, walking to the bus stop. Be as specific as possible. Slow down in your mind and go over the details of the morning. (I changed it to "give me your nighttime...")
I pull a foot long length of floss, wrap it around the first two fingers of each hand. I'm sure there's a certain way to do it, to keep it from slipping off, but I do it unconsciously anymore. I swipe both sides of each tooth three times, starting on the top. I don't think it's always on the same side, but it could be. Tonight it was back left, worked my way around to the right top then down to the bottom row, same side (not typewriter style) and back around to finish. My mind wanders during flossing.I squeeze as little toothpaste out as possible and fold it onto the toothbrush bristles and count a hundred and twenty seconds (approximate seconds), sucking in any paste that runs out of my mouth. I don't have a specific pattern of starting and finishing, but during the two minutes, I brush side to side, up and down, in little circles, trying not to put too much pressure on the bristles, trying not to wear away my gums anymore than I already have. I hit the flat parts of the teeth, the horizontal and vertical sides, then I brush the tongue, as far back as I can comfortably manage for the last two seconds, spit, rinse, and clean the toothbrush handle.
I have one of those recycled toothbrushes, this one primary red, soft bristles. They have three rings around the upper middle half which catch toothpaste and make it look dirty, so I scratch those parts with my thumbnail under the running water to clean them out. I tap the brush against the edge of the sink in case there are any solid bits hiding in the bristles then thumb through the bristles if there are any to get the rest. I hang the toothbrush on the wall holder then rinse the sink.
Next I wash my hands with the soap from the dispenser I bought for a dollar at a thrift store. It's one of those industrial types, but I make my own soap, dilute something natural, right now it smells like mint and has tea tree oil in it. I add a drop of blue dye because the dispenser is off-white and the soap by itself isn't an appealing color. It's the kind of dispenser we had at the church I grew up in. You have to slap up on the nozzle at the bottom to release the soap. Because it's my own soap formula, I have to slap it with my palm twenty-five times to get the right amount out to clean my hands. I count two series of ten then five more. I wash my hands and face then wipe off the sink, particularly the spot by the cold water faucet where the soap dispenser drips a few blue dots after I've finished slapping it.
Next I move to the cabinet and take a tiny swig of Listerine, vanilla mint flavor (actually it's the CVS knock-off brand, originally I got the vanilla mint flavor because it was clear, but they've since added a little green dye to it). While I swish the mouthwash around, I douse a cotton ball in five counts of witch hazel, then two drops of tea tree oil from the bottle in the medicine cabinet. I wipe my forehead, eyes and the rest of my face with one side then flip it over for the top and back of my head and neck. Then I wipe my shoulders, top of my back and chest. Then I wipe my butthole. Fresh!
After all of this, I spit the mouthwash out and rinse out the sink one last time and dry my hands. If it's dry out (tonight it's not, it's been raining for a couple of days, on and off), I put a little lotion on my hands, rub it into my hands then wipe the residue onto my face. Right now I'm using Burt's Bee's brand. It smells like candy!
If it's dry out or if I've been dancing, I put Heel Balm on my feet at bedside. If I don't do this pretty regularly, my feet get all crackly and hurt really bad, especially my heels.
Then I set my phone to Silent, read or write a little, check the time, put in ear plugs, take off my glasses, fold them and---
