today i went somewhere that i don't normally go: a coin laundromat. when i lived in new hampshire for a year i trucked my laundry up and down four flights of stairs (no elevator in the dorm where i lived) and drove to a laundromat to clean my clothes. and it sucked. i love that my roommate owns a washer and dryer and i have the luxury of doing laundry whenever i want in machines that are clean. now i've started doing laundry once a month for world peace cafe - washing the yucky rags they use around the restaurant - two huge garbage bags full of food-y, slightly moist rags accumulate every week, and i'm washing them occasionally. delish. i pack them into my car and truck them half a mile from the restaurant to the nearest laundromat. this laundromat is in a little shopping center right next to the area where hispanic men - dozens of them - hang out hoping to be hired by someone for a day's worth of labor. i was the only non-hispanic person in the laundromat, and none of the signs were in english. i did a good job not being "that white girl who doesn't know how to use the machines." i was proud of myself.
in addition to the coin laundromat, this shopping center houses:
a check cashing place
a mexican bakery
a travel agent
a hair salon
a "night club billiard" place
a liquor store
a place advertising "legal services"
a cell phone store
and a chinese restaurant.
(one of these things is not like the other...one of these things just doesn't belong...)
i read my newsweek and listened to "this american life" on my ipod and changed laundry from washer to dryer and then into (clean) trash bags to take back to the restaurant. and that was my morning - not bad at all. (it's spring break! woo hoo! i'm back in bed and watching movies on my laptop. life is good.)
At first I thought you were going to complain about your dryer not working and that is why you were in the laundramat. Help is on the way!
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