A Day (and apparently two posts) for Laundry

[For background story, please read: A Day for Laundry]
Waiting to do laundry can get boring really fast. I decided to leave my bag there and run home to get my phone. I might just have the strongest wifi signal know to mankind, and I had never been more thankful for it than yesterday. I could conveniently browse Youtube videos from a block away while waiting for people to transfer their laundry; thereby preserving my sanity.

After a long while, washer #3 guy came over and transferred his stuff. I gratefully dumped my load of dirty clothes into the washer along with a generous amount of detergent. I am still not sure what I was trying to accomplish. It was not as if the clothes got dirtier from the waiting. Anyhow, I went back home, knowing that I did not have to return for another 30 minutes. I spent that time peacefully having a Skype conversation with my husband (I still find the term new and exciting after two years).

I got back to discover that washer#3 guy (henceforth referred to as dryer#3 guy, due to the changed circumstances) was not back yet. Since I was there, and assumed that at least someone would be responsible enough to get their dried laundry out of dryers 1-2, I decided to wait. While waiting, I had the opportunity of getting back in touch with people I hadn't called in months. I silently thanked God and my phone carrier for unlimited weekend minutes.

Soon washers#1,2 girl came along to get her clothes out of (surprise, surprise) dryers#1,2. That girl sure had a lot of stuff to wash. She proceeded to transfer her stuff from the washers to the dryers and set the timer for 90 minutes. I sighed and went back home. I returned an hour later to find that dryer #3 guy hadn't come back for his stuff. I was beginning to lose my cool a little. Did he not know that there were people with wet laundry waiting for him? (The answer was that he probably didn't). By now, it was almost 5 and I needed to submit a paper online.

I went home to do that, and came back an hour and a long shower later, to discover that all the dryers had stopped running but no one had taken their clothes out. That, my friends, was my snapping point. I went home, got a couple of Walmart bags, and stuffed dryer#3 guy's clothes into the bag. I then proceeded to load my five hours old wet clothes into the dryer. I was just putting my quarters (which I had taken out of my 50 states collection) into the slot when the girl of the 2 dryers fame arrived. What timing! I could have surely avoided my passive aggressive behavior if she had come but 5 minutes earlier.

After giving her a smile (I was too disgruntled for other pleasantries), I hurried off home for fear that I would run into dryer#3 guy and have to explain the situation. I would start calling him plastic bag guy, but I think we've changed his name enough times. As soon as my 45 minutes were up, I was back to collect my dried clothes. Unfortunately, the clothes weren't nearly dry enough but I didn't want to be around when dryer#3 guy came along. So I hauled my semi-dry clothes home for a thorough air drying.

And that, folks, is how I wasted a whole day doing laundry. I just wish I had done a better job of it so I didn't have to hunt out each item from various flat surfaces around the house today, to finish a relatively simple task that I started 20 hours ago. On the plus side though, I am in touch with more people now, have blogged after more than a year, and have a new Twitter account. Not a bad trade.

A Day for Laundry

Yesterday had so much potential. It was one of those rare times when I had the day off from work, with the husband away visiting family, no upcoming deadlines, and beautiful weather (not sure about that last one, but no harm, right?). I had even done the dishes the previous night and the bed was all made up. So I was looking forward to having the entire day to myself. You already know this is going to disintegrate one of my rants, so without further ado...

I started the day off with a nice hot cup of toffee-flavored coffee and BBC. Life was never better. When suddenly: the phone rang. It was my boss. I reluctantly closed my browser and got to work. That wasn't too bad really. I had finished all the interesting news stories and I didn't mind a little work in the morning (checked the phone to find out it was just before 9 am). When I finally finished by 12, I got a thanks (aww) and some fresh work (wwa!... = reverse aww). Still, nothing could disturb my equilibrium. Or so I thought.

I made a quick pasta lunch for my brother and myself. Poor kid still doesn't complain. And it's not like before. I can now make a variety of interesting dishes. I just choose not to. When I was done, I got out the laundry bag that was about half full and hauled it out of the house. That's one thing I never understood about myself: how I can tear a tennis ball (figuratively speaking) down the line with my considerably heavy tennis racket, but cannot, for the life of me, carry a laundry bag across the lot without a minimum of two breaks.

This was a task I usually entrusted to either my brother or my husband, but since my husband was away and the bro was nursing a ligament tear, the responsibility had fallen on my (as previously mentioned) weak shoulders. Let's just say that if I was Atlas, there would be a shattered Earth. Or maybe a bouncing Earth. Not too clear on Greek mythology. In any case, the cause of it would be me buckling under the weight rather than shrugging (I'm not much of a shrugger now, I use my words).

So imagine my disappointment when I get to the laundry room and find a girl using two out of three washers with the third one already occupied. Luckily washer #3 was close to the end of its cycle. So I made small talk with the 2-washer girl to get my breath back, then walked back to dump the laundry bag in the trunk of my car. I washed up the lunch things, tackled a little more work, and went back about half an hour later to find that all three washers were done but the owners hadn't come to collect their stuff yet. I was not about to carry the bag back across the road, so I waited..