Bad news! One of the bragging points of my fabulous New York home is a bragging point no more. Sadly, our washer/drier combo machine thing wasn't working properly, so a guy came to fix it and took it apart and now the crazy landlady is supposed to be ordering new parts, but you know she's never going to do it. Not for a long time at least, not until we lower our rent so much that she has to do it. So meanwhile, I went to the laundromat today. Actually, it wasn't so bad. I kind of liked it. It certainly wasn't as pretty as the pictures you see (sorry, stolen from another blog out there...) but you know that every laundromat has its charm. There's always the candy machines and arcade games, all quarter-operated of course. Then there's the TV playing Montel, and little kids pushing each other around in the laundry carts. Stray socks collect dust in corners, and a bored woman mans the front desk, reading gossip magazines. I took a stack of magazines to read myself, as I sat in the plastic chair watching my clothes go around and around. Actually, I really like the laundromat. Time sort of stops when you're there amongst the humming of the machines and the everlastingly clean scent of detergent. I felt like I was accomplishing something, yet relaxing at the same time. It made me want to go home and do some spring cleaning, so that is exactly what I did.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Laundromat Blues
Bad news! One of the bragging points of my fabulous New York home is a bragging point no more. Sadly, our washer/drier combo machine thing wasn't working properly, so a guy came to fix it and took it apart and now the crazy landlady is supposed to be ordering new parts, but you know she's never going to do it. Not for a long time at least, not until we lower our rent so much that she has to do it. So meanwhile, I went to the laundromat today. Actually, it wasn't so bad. I kind of liked it. It certainly wasn't as pretty as the pictures you see (sorry, stolen from another blog out there...) but you know that every laundromat has its charm. There's always the candy machines and arcade games, all quarter-operated of course. Then there's the TV playing Montel, and little kids pushing each other around in the laundry carts. Stray socks collect dust in corners, and a bored woman mans the front desk, reading gossip magazines. I took a stack of magazines to read myself, as I sat in the plastic chair watching my clothes go around and around. Actually, I really like the laundromat. Time sort of stops when you're there amongst the humming of the machines and the everlastingly clean scent of detergent. I felt like I was accomplishing something, yet relaxing at the same time. It made me want to go home and do some spring cleaning, so that is exactly what I did.
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2 comments:
I have a good bit of time spent in various laundromats, but not doing laundry. I used to work on video games and such, so I'd have to go to them for that. Your description matches just about every one I've ever been in perfectly, too.
We had our own mini laundromat in my dorm in college, but you don't get any of "the experience" in those. It was secure enough that you took your clothes down and started them and just went back and forth from your room to take care of them. Only thing interesting that ever happened was I once started my laundry in a drunken stooper and forgot about it. It was several days later that I was looking for a particular shirt or something that I realized I had left laundry down there. I ran down only to find that someone had moved my stuff out of the washer onto the counter and just left it there. Didn't appear anything was missing even though it had all been there for DAYS! That was lucky. Probably wouldn't work that way in a NYC laundromat.
Actually, there was a pile of clothes at my laundromat that looked like it had been there for a few days. Probably some college kid.
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