The Cumin Situation

February first. The cabinet above the stove has been overloaded since approximately October, and I have known this the entire time. I have reached into it carefully, redistributed the jars by hand, moved the cumin to the front because I use it most, and told myself I would deal with it later. Later was this morning at seven forty-five, when the cabinet door swung open and the cumin jar came straight off the shelf, hit the edge of the stove, and detonated on the tile floor.

I stood there for a moment. The smell was actually extraordinary, rich and earthy and slightly warm, which is a strange thing to notice when you are barefoot and surrounded by broken glass and need to not move. I have read enough frantic comment threads to know that the first move is to stay still and find your shoes, which I could not do because my shoes were in the other room and the glass was between me and the other room. So I stood very carefully and assessed.

The full damage assessment.

The cleanup took twenty minutes. A third of a jar of cumin, two glass fragments too small to see without bending down, and one larger curved piece that skidded under the toe-kick of the cabinet. The broom handled most of it. I went back over the tile twice.

Cumin, everywhere. The smell lasted three days.

The cabinet is still overloaded. I moved the cumin to the back this time, which feels like a lesson, and also feels like not quite enough of one. The smell is still here. Honestly it is not bad. Level two climbing session on Tuesday, which has nothing to do with any of this, but I told myself I would mention it because I keep forgetting to write it down somewhere official and the level two sessions are the thing I am most looking forward to right now, and that is probably worth noting.