Tomorrow I go back to Iowa for a week. I haven’t been home for a week since June. I’ve been to Notre Dame, Holland, and Minneapolis for more time in the last couple months that I’ve been home.

While I’m used to not being home very often as a result of attending college in a different state, I’m still excited to go home. What am I looking forward to the most? The surprising answer is watching my dad get this hilarious smile on his face and proclaiming it garbage night.

My dad decided when I was younger that to combat only child syndrome he’d make me do chores. Though of course I was always a perfect angel and did lots of cleaning around the house (I can almost see my mom reading this and rolling her eyes), but for some reason the one chore that stayed constant was collecting the garbage on Monday nights.

I’m not sure if it’s because my dad didn’t want to climb the stairs, combine the garbage, and repeat again in the basement, or if it’s because he enjoyed sitting in the chair and watching me actually do something that resembled the chores he did as a boy that have (undoubtedly) been exaggerated more and more as the years have gone on. He would of course deny both.

In middle school I had a theory for awhile that he used it as a way to take the remote away from me and watch on the good TV what he wanted. I quickly realized if he really wanted to watch something he’d watch it whether I had the remote or not.

So I’m not sure why it stuck, but garbage night was one of the more constant rituals of my childhood. Things like doing the dishes and cleaning happened, but not as a ritual like garbage night. So when I go home I’m looking forward to garbage night. Why? It’s a tradition.

This garbage night I’m looking forward to that smile of my dad’s and the announcement of garbage night. I even have grand plans. Dad – if you’re reading this consider yourself warned, I might have a good joke up my sleeve. It might be a chore and a tradition, but I’ve been away from the tradition for awhile and I want to come back in style!