all about dirty laundry

one of the bummers about my apartment is that i no longer have a washer and dryer. (another would be the lack of a dishwasher.) consequently, i must make trips to the laundromat. i have settled into a routine. sunday mornings (sometimes saturdays instead) i head out at a relatively early time to the laundromat that's two blocks away with my laundry in my suitcase. the suitcase, because it has wheels. i bring a book. the washing cycle is 34 minutes, and usually the drying cycle is 24 minutes. that's an hour of reading, you know? sometimes that's 1/3 to 1/2 of a book! sunday mornings are good because so many people are off at church, and many of those who don't go to church are hungover. voila. not very busy laundromat.

wrench in the works: the creepy not.dentist guy. middle-aged man who, in the right costuming, might be considered to play an aztec in a C-movie. also, he reminds me of gilligan in some way, though i couldn't say why, as there is no physical resemblance. the creepy not.dentist guy seems to think the laundromat is a social occasion in a social location and that people are simply using the facade of dirty laundry in order to come talk to him.

i don't go there to talk to him.

i've heard him tell people he's a dentist. i'm pretty sure, based on subsequent converations i've heard, that he's not. he always tries to talk to me. i do not talk to him beyond "hello" or a mundane comment about the weather. for a while, i stopped going on sundays and started going on saturdays so that i could avoid him. then he came on a saturday.

once, i saw him in his car as i was walking to filomena's house (happily listening to the awesome mixcd that made me smile for a week). he waved. i pretended i didn't see him.

i've started going a little later on sundays, hoping that he'll be gone by the time i get there. this has met with some success. but one week we had the following awkward exchange.

creepy not.dentist guy: "hello!"
me: "hi." (walks inside, away from him)
c n.d g: "how are you?"
me: "fine." (loads up washer.)
c n.d g: "i haven't seen you for a long time."
me: "yeah." (walks away.)

then there was the weekend a few weeks ago when i walked all the way to the old supermarket to find instant tea (for the instant chai recipe). he actually came up to me in an aisle and put his hand on my back to say hello. my cool coworker marc said in a text message back to me later that day, "i would have shanked him."

i may.

apart from creepy not.dentist guy, i occasionally have to:

- listen to old men talk about their prostates very loudly
- watch people completely mishandle their children's behavior, and resist the temptation to handle the situation myself
- listen to really bad loud music and really bad loud television at the same time
- deal with people insisting they've claimed a washer when there are no visible signs that this is true
- be only mildly irritated by this, but then be irate when the same person spends half an hour on ms. pacman, preventing me from playing (this is a recent development)
- add another 8 minutes to the dryer
- wonder why i'm having a terrible coughing fit

mostly, having the routine of going every weekend means i only have one load to do, it only costs $3.00, and i get it out of the way early, with as few people in the way as possible. occasionally, due to weather or illness, or exhaustion or exploits, i don't get there on the weekend, and then i have to go on a weekday afternoon. i don't like this, though i sometimes use it as a safety net.

sometimes, i totally procrastinate about going. like now. i don't really feel like it. :P
sometimes, this procrastination takes the form of watching a video on the computer. but now that i have the internet, it can totally take the form of writing a really long and boring post about a super-dull topic like the laundromat.