Pages

10/22/10

Laundry

It's been a few years since I've had to use a Laundromat. Even since I've moved into an apartment without a washer & dryer I've been doing my laundry at the house of a generous friend. But my friend is out of town & someone I don't know is house-sitting.  I could conceivably waltz in there and do my laundry anyway... but I don't know that I'm up for that much awkward.

Fortunately there's a laundromat not far from my home. A few years ago I was driving 30 minutes to do my laundry. I lived in an apartment with no washer/dryer hookup. The landlord conveniently owned a laundromat across the street. There no storage space either and the landlord conveniently owned a u-store-it across the street. These things gave me pause, but the bigger issue was that the dryers in the landlord-owned laundromat burnt people's clothes. Not mine, but my roommate's clothing came back visibly singed. Next closest laundromat? Two towns away. Oh Indiana.

The laundromat is over-priced and wildly inconvenient, even when it's nearby. You can't leave and generally, if you're me, you can't talk to anyone because everyone else is speaking Spanish. Unlesss of course I need to tell anyone, "the princess is crying in the bathroom."  Rosetta Stone = Fail. But, one thing about the laundromat is that it's actually a decent place to sketch, because what else are you going to do?



I have never witnessed kids racing in the laundry carts, though there are usually a few of them playing hide'n-go-seek or tag. But if you were a kid, wouldn't you want to play in the laundry carts? My family never did laundry at the laundromat, but I feel fairly certain that my sisters and I would have tried this.

7 comments:

  1. I've only used laundromats overseas and they were nice enough to provide books for entertainment. It's boring as all get-out otherwise. I'd totally race in the laundry carts nowadays!

    ReplyDelete
  2. In some laundromats I've seen magazines and they generally have a video game or two, but mostly I bring my own reading material and/or the sketchbook.

    When I was a kid I sometimes went to the laundromat with a friend and her mom would give us a quarter or two. We could either play video games or walk to UDF and get some candy. We always got candy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. the laundromat illustration is the cutest!!!

    xx
    Justine

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is so cute! When I lived on campus my friends and I would go stir crazy waiting for our laundry! When we were freshman we would sit and watch the washers spin...once we realized that no one is really going to steal our clothes...we'd set timers on our phones & head up stairs.

    Since I live close to campus, my house is the designated laundry spot for some of my friends :)

    I love your illustrations! They are adorable :) Congrats on the children's book :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Moe!

    Yeah, I never had a problem leaving my laundry when I was at college. Although I did time it and get it as soon as it was done - never understand how a person could leave their laundry there for days on end. Don't they notice that their wardrobe is suddenly pretty limited?

    ReplyDelete