I really love (hate.) doing laundry here.
We live in a small co-op building that is without the luxury of having a massive laundry room like our last two apartment buildings. Instead, we have two washers, & one single dryer (that is luckily large enough for several loads). Most people are smart & send their laundry out, but we haven't gotten into that habit quite yet. Instead, I get to take our painfully slow elevator down to the basement with my pockets full of quarters, praying that the machines are empty.
Another quirk about our building - the 6th (top) floor houses all of the elderly people, tenants who have been here for decades. Many are very kind, but sadly most of them look like they belong in a nursing home. Some of them show clear signs of dementia, like the nice man who commonly mistakes me for a woman named Eleanor, telling me that I looked very lovely in [my] white pant suit the other day. I definitely don't own a white pant suit, nor am I within decades of the age of women that this man should be interested in.
Anyway.
I ran into one of these older tenants when I got to the basement this morning to put in my load of whites (I'm out of underwear). Luckily, she was only doing one load, so I was fine. I just had to set my timer so that I could switch my load immediately after it was finished so that I could beat her to the dryer. Sometimes laundry is a vicious game.
25 minutes later, I I successfully switched my laundry to the dryer.
48 minutes later (approximately 1 minute after my timer went off, 3 minutes before my cycle was scheduled to be over), I took the elevator to the basement.
The doors opened only for me to see the old lady sitting there, in her floral bathrobe & crazy curls, right by the door.
In her thick Russian accent:
Her: Where you been? I been waiting 10 minutes! 10 minutes!
Me: I'm on time. My alarm just went off.
Her: 10 minutes!!!
Me: Well, okay, you could have just taken my stuff out & put it on the table. I wouldn't have minded. My alarm just went off. I thought I was on time.
Her: 10 minutes! (yelling) I would never touch someone's clothes!
Awesome. Next time I'm sending my laundry out.
5 comments:
woah. humans.
awkward. yeah in our laundromat (luckily it's right next door) they take your laundry out if you're late. i try to be on time. i can't imagine having to fight for one dryer. okay i'm stopping with the commenting on every post thing, i promise. :)
I just love your posts. So funny! I also am loving the pictures you just had taken. I SO wish we would have had some taken in DC before we moved. Great idea.
(Okay, on a whole other note I have totally been thinking about a blog post you posted a WAY long time ago about girls who buy nice cameras and then think they are pro photographers and start asking people to pay real money... do you remember saying post? Anyways, I wnat you to know that I TOTALLY agree with you. Two of my friends just bought nice cameras and have already started blogs to take pictures of peoples kids. Come one now, you've owned the camera for two weeks!! I just had to vent for a second because I know (from your old post) that you feel the same way!!!
oh dear. i really like nice old people and i really dislike mean old people. i'm sure she would have thought you have some very interesting underwear choices if she had taken out your load of whites!
i had a lot of co-workers in san francisco who sent their laundry to the wash and fold. it was only a dollar a pound there (although i'm sure n.y. is more expensive), and i was always so jealous.
10 minutes!! geeeez!
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