Laundry

This is probably the most mundane topic one could blog about, but for anyone who's lived in any city, you can understand my pleasure: I just put in a load of laundry, without using any coins, plastic cards, or other payment devices! I just put the clothes in the machine, added detergent, and came back upstairs! I even left my phosphate-free detergent on a little wooden shelf in the basement, without fear that someone will steal it!

When I told my friend S over IM that I was doing laundry, NO COINS, she, New Yorker that she is, suggested I just run out to the deli and buy something to get some change. I had to explain that what I meant by "no coins" was that I didn't need any money at all to wash my clothes. I'm not sure she understood.

Ah, life's little luxuries. There was a time I had to haul my dirty laundry down five flights of stairs, then choose between sitting in a cold laundromat blaring a rerun of Hogan's Heroes or something similarly depressing, or hiking up the five flights of stairs again, only to have to come back down in 30 minutes. If I did go back to my apartment, I ran the risk of having some stranger take my wet clothes out of the machine so he could start his own load. If I stayed, I risked subjecting myself to the peculiar ennui that is specific to laundromats everywhere, no matter the city, state or country. I usually left the laundry there and went back upstairs.

At least I was in great shape back then.