A day in the life of Jeff

# Episode 1
GLOSSARY

to get up – to get out of bed; to leave one’s bed
*This morning I got up very quickly because the baby was crying.
 
to wake up – to awaken; to stop sleeping
*She always leaves her curtains open so that she can wake up with the sunlight.
 
to handle – to manage; to deal with; to control
*Are you sure that you can handle taking six classes this semester?
 
covers – the layers of fabric that cover a bed; the cloth material that covers a bed and that keep one warm
*When my husband sleeps, he always steals the covers and then I get so cold at night!
 
comforter – the top-most, thickest cover for a bed, usually made of feathers or other warm material
*In the winter, they sleep under a very thick comforter, but in the summer they don’t use it.
 
light blanket – a thin cover for a bed, made of wool, cotton, or other material * When Marcos saw Maria sleeping on the sofa, he covered her with a light blanket so she wouldn’t be too cold.
 
pillow – a soft cushion for one’s head in bed, usually filled with feathers, cotton, or other material
*Why do people decorate their beds with so many pillows?  I only need one to sleep on.   
 
pillowcase – the fabric covering a pillow; the material that covers a pillow to keep it clean
*They bought new pillowcases to match the color of their bedroom walls.
 
sheets – two pieces of large, thin fabric placed on a bed – one to lie on and one to lie under
*How often do you change the sheets on your bed?
 
to match – to have the same color or colors that look good together; to make a good combination; to look good together
*Do you think that this sweater matches these pants?
 
to go off – to make a loud noise very suddenly
*When my alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., I was in the middle of a very good dream.
 
jarring – irritating, unpleasant, or annoying to one’s ears
*The children were fighting during the car trip and their arguments became very jarring to their parents.
 
buzzer – an electronic device that makes a long, continuous buzzing sound, similar to that of a flying insect like a fly
*Many TV game shows use a buzzer when participants answer a question incorrectly.
 
to drive (someone) nuts – to make someone angry, irritated, or crazy * Please stop singing that song over and over again.  You’re driving me nuts!
 
wake-up call – a hotel service that calls guests at a time the guest wants to wake them up in the morning
*He missed his flight because the hotel forgot to give him a wake-up call.
 
early riser – a person who enjoys waking up early in the morning
*Because Samuel is an early riser, he usually makes breakfast for his wife so that she can sleep a little later.
 
to oversleep – to sleep too late; to sleep past the time that one is supposed to * Sasha overslept and missed her biology exam.  Do you think her professor will let her take it another day?
 
to sleep in – to sleep later than usual
*Teenagers love to sleep in on weekends.  Sometimes they don’t wake up until noon!
 
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
 
ESLPod.com presents "A Day in the Life of Jeff," a special 10-episode course to teach you everyday vocabulary in English.
 
This is Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California, and I'll be the host for this series.  In this course, you'll learn the vocabulary for everyday actions, from getting up in the morning to going to bed at night and everything in between.   
 
Each lesson has three parts: first, a story read slowly; second, an explanation of the story and the vocabulary we use; and third, the story read at a normal speed.  Are you ready?  Let's begin with lesson one: “Getting Up.”
 
[Start of story]
 
The worst part of the day for me is definitely when I have to get up.  Waking up, that I can handle.  But getting up?  That, I hate.  The covers I have on my bed are heavy, mostly because I have a comforter as well as a light blanket.  I sleep with two pillows, which for some reason have different color pillowcases.  Well, at least the sheets match.
 
I sometimes wake up before the alarm goes off.  I like to keep the alarm at a low volume, with some classical music, nothing too jarring.  My old roommate used to like the terrible buzzer that you find on most alarm clocks nowadays, which always used to drive me nuts.  As I was saying, I sometimes wake up before the alarm, usually because of some noise outside the house—a car door slamming, an alarm going off, gunfire—well, okay, not gunfire, but man, is my neighborhood noisy!  Of course, when I’m staying in a hotel, it’s usually easier to just get a wake up call from the hotel than set the alarm.
 
I’m not really an early riser, so I don’t jump out of bed ready to take on the world.  I get up very slowly, usually one foot on the floor at a time.  Every once in awhile I’ll oversleep, but not too often.  I really love the weekends, when I can sleep in.
 
[End of story]
 
Our story begins by me describing how much I do not like getting up.  To get up means to get out of your bed, to stand up after you have been lying down on a bed.  I say that, “The worst part of my day is when I have to get up.  Waking up, that I can handle.”  To wake up, “wake up,” (two words) means that you are sleeping and you stop sleeping and now you are awake.  The verb is to wake up.  So, you can wake up while you are in bed, and then, you get up—you stand up after lying down.
 
I said that “waking up” is something “that I can handle.”  To handle, “handle,” here means to be able to control—something that I can manage—something that I can accept; it's not a problem.  Another expression would be something I can deal with.  To deal, “deal,” with something is the same, in this case, as to be able to handle something.
 
I say that “getting up” is something that “I hate.  The covers I have on my bed are heavy.”  The covers, “covers,” are the things that you put over you to keep you warm.  Usually, the covers include a blanket, sometimes a comforter and usually, what we would call the top sheet or flat sheet.  A comforter, “comforter,” is a very thick blanket—a very heavy blanket.  A blanket, “blanket,” is something that you put over you when you are sleeping to keep you warm.   
 
Blanket is a general term; a comforter is a kind of blanket—a heavy blanket.  The opposite of a comforter would be a light blanket.  A light, “light,” blanket would be the opposite, and that is a blanket that will keep you warm, but if it gets very cold, it might not keep you warm—it might not be sufficient.
 
So, we have a comforter and we have a light blanket.  Usually, there is a top sheet, “sheet,” that you put over you in between your body and the blankets, and this top sheet is sometimes called a flat sheet.  The sheet that goes on the bed itself—that goes onto the corners of the bed—that's called a fitted sheet, a fitted, “fitted,” sheet.  So, we have a fitted sheet on the bed that you sleep on top of, then we have a top sheet and then a blanket, sometimes, if it's very cold, a comforter as well.
 
I say in the story that “I sleep with two pillows.”  A pillow, “pillow,” is what you put your head on when you sleep.  Now, “for some reason,” I say I “have different colored pillowcases.”  This is true, actually; I have a black pillowcase and a blue pillowcase for my two pillows.  I think the reason is I am too lazy to go and buy a new pillowcase.
 
Well, the pillowcase, “pillowcase,” (one word) is the thing that you put over the pillow so the pillow doesn't get dirty; we call that the pillowcase.  I say, “Well, at least the sheets match.”  We already know what a sheet is.  When we say the sheets match, “match,” we mean that they are the same color or two colors that look good together.  We use that verb, to match, when we are talking about clothing as well, or anything where you have two colors.
 
“I sometimes wake up before the alarm goes off.”  When we say the alarm goes off, we mean that the alarm starts to make a sound.  Your alarm, “alarm,” is a machine that makes noise at a certain time; usually it has a clock.  Well, “I sometimes wake up before my alarm” makes noise—my alarm goes off.  “I like to keep the alarm at a low volume,” meaning not very loud, “at a low volume, with some classical music, nothing too jarring.”  When we say a sound is jarring, “jarring,” we mean that it is loud and it causes you to jump or to be surprised.  It's something that is not very nice—not very pleasant.  A jarring noise would be one that bothers you, perhaps because it is very loud or it is not a very nice sound.  So, I don't want my alarm to have a jarring noise, instead I play classical music.
 
Now, “My old roommate”—the person I used to share an apartment with—”used to like the terrible buzzer you find on most alarm clocks.”  This, again, is true.  I had a roommate that had a very loud and bad sounding buzzer; it was a terrible buzzer.  The buzzer, “buzzer,” is when the alarm clock doesn't play music, but it just plays a sound.  Sometimes it is like a bell ringing; that's the buzzer.  Well, this buzzer “always used to drive me nuts.”  To drive someone nuts, “nuts,” means to drive them crazy—to make them crazy—to make them go crazy.
 
I continue the story by saying, “As I was saying.”  We use that expression, as I was saying, when we are talking about one thing then we start talking about a second thing, and now we want to go back and talk about the first thing again.  So, when you interrupt yourself when you are talking, and then you change the topic—change what you are talking about—and then want to go back to your original topic, you say, “As I was saying.”
 
“As I was saying, I sometimes wake up before the alarm, usually because of some noise outside the house.”  When we say there is some noise—some sound—outside the house or outside of the house—you can say either one—we mean that someone is making a noise that is very loud.  Some of those noises are “a car door slamming.”  The verb, to slam, “slam,” means that you close the door usually very quickly and you make a loud noise.  Someone closes their car door very fast, it will make a noise; we call that “slamming the door.”   
 
My mother always used to tell me when I was young, “Don't slam the doors,” meaning when I come in and close the door, I should close it slowly and quietly.  Of course, I was not a good boy so I would sometimes slam the door.
 
As I was saying, an alarm goes off, that's another noise that can wake you up outside and this would be a car alarm.  Here, in Los Angeles, everyone has a car alarm, and sometimes those alarms go off at night.  Another noise is gunfire; gun, “gun,” fire, “fire.”  Gunfire is when someone shoots a gun and it makes a noise.  This is, again, Los Angeles, so we sometimes have gunfire but of course, I'm joking.  I say, “well, okay, not gunfire,” meaning I'm just kidding—that isn't actually true, although, it is true sometimes.
 
I then say, “Man, is my neighborhood noisy!”  That expression, “man,” is just a way of expressing your emotion when you are saying something that you really mean or really want to emphasize.  “Man, is my neighborhood noisy,” that means my neighborhood is very noisy.
 
“Of course, when I'm staying at a hotel, it’s usually easier to just get a wake up call from the hotel.”  A wake up call, “call,” is when the hotel calls you on the phone to wake you up, so you don't have to set your own alarm.  To set, “set,” an alarm means to turn it on and to put a certain time that you want to get up.  Well, sometimes people have problems with their alarm clocks and so, if they are in a hotel, they can ask the hotel to wake them up with a wake up call.
 
At the end of the story I say, “I’m not really an early riser.”  An early, “early,” riser, “riser,” means someone who wakes up and gets up very early in the morning.  You could be an early riser; you could be a late riser.  The word riser comes from the verb to rise, “rise,” which, in this case, means to get up.  Well, “I'm not really an early riser,” I say, “so I don’t jump out of bed.”  To jump out of bed means to get out of bed very quickly.  “I don’t jump out of bed ready to take on the world.”  “To take on the world,” means I'm ready for the day.  It's an expression we use to say that I am ready to go out into the world and do my best.  “I'm not an early riser, I don't jump out of bed ready to take on the world.”  Instead, “I get up very slowly, usually one foot on the floor at a time.”  So first, I get up and I put one foot on the floor and then another foot on the floor, and then I stand up.
 
“Every once in awhile,” I say, “I’ll oversleep.”  To oversleep, “oversleep,” (one word) means that you sleep later than you should.  For example, you are wanting to get up at seven o'clock in the morning and you sleep until 7:30.  You don't realize that you are sleeping too late; we call that oversleeping.  To oversleep means that you sleep longer than you wanted to.
 
At the end of the story I say, “I really love the weekends,” Fridays and Saturdays,
“when I can sleep in.”  To sleep in means that you don't get up at your normal time; you sleep longer than you normally do.  So, if you normally get up at seven, on Saturday or Sunday if you don't work, you may sleep in until nine a.m.
 
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a native rate of speech.
 
[Start of story]
 
The worst part of the day for me is definitely when I have to get up.  Waking up, that I can handle.  But getting up?  That, I hate.  The covers I have on my bed are heavy, mostly because I have a comforter as well as a light blanket.  I sleep with two pillows, which for some reason have different color pillowcases.  Well, at least the sheets match.
 
I sometimes wake up before the alarm goes off.  I like to keep the alarm at a low volume, with some classical music, nothing too jarring.  My old roommate used to like the terrible buzzer that you find on most alarm clocks nowadays, which always used to drive me nuts.  As I was saying, I sometimes wake up before the alarm, usually because of some noise outside the house—a car door slamming, an alarm going off, gunfire—well, okay, not gunfire, but man, is my neighborhood noisy!  Of course, when I’m staying in a hotel, it’s usually easier to just get a wake up call from the hotel than set the alarm.
 
I’m not really an early riser, so I don’t jump out of bed ready to take on the world.  I get up very slowly, usually one foot on the floor at a time.  Every once in awhile I’ll oversleep, but not too often.  I really love the weekends, when I can sleep in.
 
[End of story]
 
That concludes part one of “A Day in the Life of Jeff.”  In part two, we'll be
“Cleaning Up.”
 
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development, in beautiful Los Angeles, California.  Visit our web site at eslpod.com.
 
This course was produced by Dr. Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Tse.  Copyright 2006.
 
 
______
 
Contributors to this series are Jeff McQuillan, Lucy Tse, and Jessica Brown.
Episode 2
GLOSSARY
 
sink – a kitchen or bathroom container that is attached to the floor and wall, holds water, and is used for washing dishes or brushing teeth
*When Lily came home, she was disappointed to see that the sink was full of dirty dishes.
 
medicine cabinet – a small, flat cabinet on a bathroom wall that is used to store medicines, toothbrushes, lotions, and other things, and has a mirror on front * If you have a headache, take an aspirin.  There’re in the medicine cabinet.
 
toilet – a large bowl and pipe attached to the floor and wall in a bathroom, used to collect body waste
*Cleaning the toilet is my least favorite household chore.
 
tub (also bathtub) – a large, long container that you fill with water and then sit in to take a bath
*Marsha relaxes by filling her tub with hot water and taking a bath while listening to classical music.
 
mouthwash – a liquid that cleans one’s mouth and makes breath smell better * After eating foods with strong flavors like garlic and onion, you should use mouthwash because it covers the smell.
 
to swish (something) around – to quickly move a liquid around the inside of one’s mouth without drinking it
*The dentist said that I should swish mouthwash around for at least 30 seconds every morning.
 
to gargle – to move a liquid into the back of one’s throat without drinking it. * Harry believes that the best cure for a sore throat is to gargle warm water with lemon juice and salt.
 
to spit – to push food or liquid out of one’s mouth
*When Jack was six years old, he had trouble taking medicine.  He didn’t like the taste and would spit it out.   
 
floss – a thread that is moved between teeth to clean them
*A toothbrush cleans the front and back of your teeth, but only dental floss can clean between teeth.
shower curtain – a large piece of plastic or cloth that hangs from the ceiling to the floor in front of a bathtub or shower to keep water from entering the rest of the room
*This morning Uncle Kenny forgot to close the shower curtain, so there was water all over the floor.
 
to lather up – to cover oneself with soap or one’s hair with shampoo
*We ran out of hot water immediately after I lathered up, so I had to wash off the soap in cold water!
 
shampoo – liquid soap made for cleaning hair
*People with long hair use more shampoo than people with short hair do.
 
to rinse off – to use water to remove soap from something
*Kelly’s son cried when she rinsed him off because she accidentally got soap in his eyes.
 
to shave – to remove hair from the body by using a razor that cuts the hair near the skin
*In the United States, many women shave their legs to make them look smoother.
 
electric razor – an electronic device for shaving
*When I was a child, I always woke up to the sound of my father using an electric razor to shave his face.
 
hand razor – a plastic or metal tool for shaving, held in one’s hand
*When he started shaving, he often has cuts on his chin because he didn’t know how to use a hand razor.
 
shaving cream – a cream, foam, or lotion that is put on the skin before shaving * If I shave without shaving cream, my skin becomes red and itchy.
 
disposable blades – the flat, sharp piece of metal in a hand razor that cuts the hair and can be thrown out and replaced
*Disposable blades are more expensive than traditional blades but they never need to be re-sharpened.
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
 
Welcome to ESLPod.com's “Day in the Life of Jeff.”  I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development.
 
In the first episode of “A Day in the Life of Jeff,” I talked about how I get up every morning.  In part two, we're going to talk about “Cleaning Up,” what you do in the morning to get ready to eat and go to work.  Let's get started.
 
[Start of story]
 
I go into my bathroom sometime around 6:45 a.m.  My sink and medicine cabinet are on the left when you enter my bathroom.  The toilet is next to that, with the tub in front.  Anyway, I turn on the lights, and try to find the mouthwash in the medicine cabinet.  I pour a small amount into a cup, swish it around for 30 seconds, gargle, and spit.  Not pleasant, but necessary.  Then I get out the floss.  When I’m done flossing, I pull out the toothbrush and the toothpaste.  I brush and then it’s off to the shower.   
 
I pull the shower curtain aside, step into the tub, and pull the curtain back.  I turn on both the hot and the cold water, looking for the perfect temperature.  I lather up with soap, put some shampoo in my hair, then rinse and dry off.  Now it’s shaving time.  I used to own an electric razor, but I found it didn’t shave close enough.  So now I’m back to the old hand razor.  I lather up with shaving cream, and I start to shave.  I rinse the razor and throw the disposable blades in the trash.  It’s about 7:00 AM, and I’m on to breakfast.
 
[End of story]
 
In this episode, we are “Cleaning Up,” or making ourselves clean.   
 
“I go into my bathroom,” I begin the story, “sometime around 6:45 a.m.”  Notice that we say a.m., but you could also say, “in the morning.”  6:45 is also the same as quarter to seven.  “My sink and medicine cabinet are on the left when you enter my bathroom.”  In your bathroom and in your kitchen there is usually a sink and a faucet.  The faucet, “faucet,” is where the water comes out, and normally you have hot water and cold water.  The sink is where the water goes into.  Usually, it is a round or a square white bowl, really, that has a hole at the bottom and we call that hole the drain, “drain.”  That's where the water goes down into the pipe—it's where the water goes out of the sink.  If you want to fill your sink with water, you usually have to stop the drain.  To stop a drain means to put something over it so that the water doesn't go down.
 
So, we have a faucet and we have a sink, and in your bathroom, you often have a small box, sometimes with a mirror on it so you can see yourself, that we call the medicine cabinet.  A cabinet, “cabinet,” is like a small box where you put things, but it's a box that hangs on the wall—it is attached to the wall.  You can have cabinets in your kitchen, where you put your dishes.  So, they're containers—they're things that you used to put and store or keep things.
 
A medicine cabinet is a place where you have medicine, but also, it's a place where you put your other things that you use in the bathroom; things like mouthwash, shaving cream, razors and so forth.  We'll talk about those in a second.  So, that's your medicine cabinet.
 
In my bathroom, the “sink and the medicine cabinet are on the left” side when you walk into the bathroom, “the toilet is next to that to.”  The toilet, “toilet,” is what you use to go to the bathroom—what you use to get rid of things from your body, we might say.  When you are done using the toilet, you then flush the toilet.  The verb, to flush, “flush,” is when you get rid of what's inside the toilet after you're done using it, usually with water.
 
There is a tub in my bathroom.  A tub, “tub,” sometimes called a bathtub, is where you can take a bath.  You can fill the tub up with water and you can get into the water.   
 
“Anyway,” I say in the story, “I turn on the lights.”  Notice the use of the word “anyway.”  It's common in English to use that word when you want to get back to something you were talking about before.  We can also say, “as I was saying,” it means something similar here.
 
“Anyway, I turn on the lights, and try to find the mouthwash in the medicine cabinet.”  The mouthwash, “mouthwash,” (all one word) is a liquid like water, but it has something in it that helps clean your teeth—clean the inside of your mouth; that is mouthwash.  So, you take the mouthwash and you “pour a small amount into a cup.”  The mouthwash usually comes in, or is in, a bottle.  This bottle, you take and you pour some mouthwash into a cup.  To pour means to take something that is liquid, like water or mouthwash, and put it somewhere else.  In this case, it's into a small cup.
 
After it put it into the cup, I “swish it around for 30 seconds.”  To swish, “swish,” something around means to move it around, and we use that verb usually when talking about something that is liquid like water or mouthwash that you move back and forth very quickly.  So, when you put the mouthwash in your mouth, usually you take your sides of your mouth, what we would call your cheeks, “cheeks,” your cheeks and you move them back and forth, so that the mouthwash covers and cleans all of your teeth.
 
After “I swish it around,” I “gargle.”  The verb to gargle, “gargle,” means to take water and to put it into your back of your mouth.  I will have to demonstrate this; it's easier to understand if you can hear it.  [Gargling sound]  That's to gargle.  That's just an extra little bonus for listening to this episode; you get to hear me gargle!
 
Well, after I gargle, I have to get rid of or remove the water from my mouth, and I do that by spitting.  To spit, “spit,” means to take something that's liquid, like water, and to remove it from your mouth.  Usually, you make a certain sound like [spitting sound]; something like that.
 
Well, now we've gargled and spit.  I say these are “Not pleasant, but necessary.”  Not necessarily something nice but something I have to do.  After I use the mouthwash, “Then I get out,” or take out, “the floss.”  Floss, “floss,” is a piece of string that you put in between your teeth to clean; we call that floss.  And, there's a verb, to floss, which means to use that little piece of string.
 
“When I’m done flossing,” when I'm finished flossing, “I pull out,” or take out, “the toothbrush and the toothpaste.”  The toothbrush is what you use to clean your teeth; the toothpaste is like the soap that you use to clean your teeth.  But, we do not call it tooth soap; we call it toothpaste.  It comes in a container that we call a tube, and the tube, “tube,” is where the toothpaste is, and you usually squeeze the tube, “squeeze,” to get the toothpaste out of the tube.
 
So, I put some toothpaste on my toothbrush and then I brush.  We use that verb, to brush, to mean to clean my teeth.  But, we don't say, “I'm going to clean my teeth,” usually, we say, “I'm going to brush my teeth.”  That same verb, to brush, can also be used with your hair, when you are trying to put your hair in a certain place—a certain position.  I don't brush my hair, of course, because I don't have any hair, but I used to, when I was younger, brush my hair.
 
I finished brushing my teeth, so now I'm going to take a shower.  There's a difference between taking a shower, where the water comes from the top of the wall and goes over you, and a bath, which means to fill your bathtub with water and get in.  Most American homes have the tub and the shower in one place.  Some homes have a separate shower and a separate tub.
 
In the story, I say that “I pull the shower curtain aside.”  The curtain, “curtain,” is what you use to keep the water in the shower from going onto the floor.  It prevents the water from leaving the shower area.  We use that word, curtain, also for the things that you can put over your window in your house or apartment, so nobody can see inside; that's also called a curtain.
 
Well, “I pull the shower curtain aside,” meaning I put it to one side—the left side or the right side.  I “step into the tub, and I pull the curtain back,” I put it back in its original position.  “I turn on both the hot and the cold water.”  To turn on means that I turn the faucet on so that the water comes out.  Remember, the faucet is where water comes out for a sink; it's also where the water comes out for a tub or a shower.  Actually, for the shower—the top of the shower, we don't normally call that a faucet, we call that a showerhead, “head.”  So, the showerhead is where the water comes out when you're taking a shower.  And, if you are drawing a bath, meaning if you are putting water into your tub to take a bath—to draw a bath—then you use the faucet.  The water comes out of the faucet spout, “spout,” that's the part of the faucet where the water actually comes out of.
 
I step into the shower, I turn on “the hot and cold water, looking for the perfect temperature,” not too hot, not too cold.  “I lather up with soap.”  To lather, “lather,” or to lather up, means to take soap and put it on your skin and then put water on it, and you rub the soap and the water together until you make little bubbles— until the soap and water covers your skin.  That is to lather or to lather up.
 
Well, “I lather up with” some “soap,” and then I “put some shampoo in my hair.”  Shampoo, “shampoo,” is the soap for your head—for your hair, if you have hair.  So, you take this special soap, usually it is a liquid soap, and you put it on your hair and that is called shampoo.  You can also lather up your shampoo.  You take your hands and you move them back and forth quickly, and that would lather up your shampoo.
 
Well, after you do that, then you have to get rid of the soap and the shampoo, and you do that by rinsing.  To rinse, “rinse,” means to take water and get rid of the soap and the shampoo that are on your body.  After you do that, then you have to dry your body off.  To dry off means the same as to dry, but we use that expression, to dry off, to mean to dry, in this case, your body with a towel.
 
Now, it is time for me to shave.  To shave, “shave,” means to remove hair, usually from your face.  If you are a man and you don't shave, you will grow a beard and a mustache; you will have hair on your face.  Well, I don't like beards and mustaches, so I shave—I use something to get rid of the hair.   
 
The thing I use to get rid of the hair is the razor, “razor.”  A razor is like a knife, it has a blade, “blade,” and the blade is the thing that actually cuts the hair—that removes the hair.  So, you have a razor that you use to shave the whiskers from your face.  A whisker, “whisker,” is the name we give the hair on your face, at least for a man, we call those whiskers.  So, you can have an electric razor, like I used to have, or you can have a hand razor.  A hand razor is one that is not electric that you just take and you shave by moving the razor back and forth on your face.
 
Before I shave, I have to “lather up with shaving cream.”  We already know that word, lather up, it means to mix the soap with water and make bubbles so that it spreads across your skin.  Shaving cream, “cream,” is the special kind of soap or special kind of liquid material that you put on your face to make it easier for you to shave, so you don't cut yourself or hurt yourself when you are shaving.
 
“I rinse the razor” after I am done shaving, and I “throw the disposable blades in the trash.”  The blades are the things that go on top of the razor that cut the whiskers, or remove the whiskers.  Disposable, “disposable,” comes from the verb to dispose, “dispose,” which means to throw away—to put in the trash—to put in the garbage.  That is disposable.  If something is disposable, you use it once or twice and then you it throw away.  Well, these are disposable blades.
 
Now it's seven o'clock, when I finish showering and shaving, and I am “on to breakfast,” meaning now I am going to have my breakfast.
 
Let's listen to the story again, this time at a native rate of speech.
 
[Start of story]
 
I go into my bathroom sometime around 6:45 a.m.  My sink and medicine cabinet are on the left when you enter my bathroom.  The toilet is next to that, with the tub in front.  Anyway, I turn on the lights, and try to find the mouthwash in the medicine cabinet.  I pour a small amount into a cup, swish it around for 30 seconds, gargle, and spit.  Not pleasant, but necessary.  Then I get out the floss.  
When I’m done flossing, I pull out the toothbrush and the toothpaste.  I brush and then it’s off to the shower.   
 
I pull the shower curtain aside, step into the tub, and pull the curtain back.  I turn on both the hot and the cold water, looking for the perfect temperature.  I lather up with soap, put some shampoo in my hair, then rinse and dry off.  Now it’s shaving time.  I used to own an electric razor, but I found it didn’t shave close enough.  So now I’m back to the old hand razor.  I lather up with shaving cream, and I start to shave.  I rinse the razor and throw the disposable blades in the trash.  It’s about 7:00 AM, and I’m on to breakfast.
 
[End of story]
 
That concludes part two of “A