Dish soap and dishwasher soap: not the same thing

I consider myself pretty independent when it comes to doing stuff around the house. I've been washing my own clothes since my pre-teen years, I know how to cook, I can load a dishwasher like nobody's business... but yesterday, circumstances proved that I still have things to learn.

Faced with a shortage of spoons, as is commonly the case in our room, and a few too many odd smells emanating from the sink, it was time to do the dishes. Being the multi-tasker I am, I started cooking dinner, but while things were simmering, I loaded the dishwasher. Unfortunately, the dishwashing soap was in short supply. I figured why not just squirt in some of the dish detergent we use to hand wash stuff. I mean, it's all soap right?

Wrong. As I was calmly frying up some chicken to put in my rice, I happened to glance over behind me to find... AN ONGOING SOAP HEMORRHAGE!!


I frantically grabbed up all the towels I could find to start sopping up the ever-increasing mass of soap. Meanwhile, I cranked the dial around trying to find the "drain this shit NOW" part of the cycle. Even this proved to be somewhat destructive.

This requires a bit of explanation. Three weeks ago, I put a shot glass through the garbage disposal. Two weeks ago, I tried to use the garbage disposal again. This resulted in the disposal clogging completely. So for two weeks, whatever little bits of food made it into the sink also made it into the drain and took up residence there.

Well, since the drain got so clogged, and the dishwasher drains into the same pipe... yeah, draining the dishwasher resulted in... A SECOND SOAP HEMORRHAGE!! (seen in progress here)

This wouldn't have been so bad if little bits of decaying food hadn't found their way into the Vesuvius of suds coming out of my drain. In the end it was a very nasty mix, and in order to banish it back to the bowels of the DC sewer, the help of the bathroom plunger was required. Gross but absolutely necessary.

Lesson learned: dishwasher detergent, and only dishwasher detergent, goes in the dishwasher. Anything else will require ample towels and will ruin your dinner.