What are you in for?

I love a laundry mat…especially a clean one without broken down washers, dryers, or people. Granted I don’t go all the time. I’m sure if I had to schlep my butt and basket of clothing every week I wouldn’t be as excited.

I love that the washers are so big…you can get a lot accomplished at one time. But the bigger the washer, the more quarters they eat. Luckily laundry mats these days can make change for bills up to ten bucks. I put in a ten dollar bill and I felt like I won at the slots when 25 quarters fell out…which is waay better than I do at Mohegan Sun.

Anywhooooooooo…….........…

The big question when doing your laundry at the Mat is: “What are you in for?”

I was in for a couple of comforters. I looked around me to see what the others were in for.

There was a woman in for scatter rugs. A young man in for tons of blue jeans. Another woman in for blankets. And an old man in for some towels and white handkerchiefs. (Someone needs to tell him about disposable paper tissues. This is 2010.)

After I put everything in the wash I sat down and listened to the machines working all around me.

……….filling, agitating, spinning, rinsing, tumbling, drying………

I loved the sounds they made as they hummed and whirled away. The Mat was quiet except for the sounds of the machines. People were either dozing, reading, or thinking….

…..Until a man walked in with a hands-free phone head set…talking loudly, like he was Mayor of the Mat. “Can you hear me now?” I almost stood up and said to him… "Hey, I can hear you now. This is a zone-out zone…so zip it.”

I think The Mat should be kept as hallowed ground for man and machine…a quiet place where man becomes symbiotic with machine…where people are permitted to go deep in thought without interruption.

Obama might want to think about doing his laundry at a Mat in DC. The quietness and solitude could be beneficial to him. Maybe it would help Obama to arrive at better policy decisions. One thing for sure: The Mat definitely is a good place for dirty laundry to be exposed…waaay better than WikiLeaks.


Countdown to Christmas – Day SIX

I hung the Advent Christmas tree calendar…which serves as a constant reminder of how little time I have left before Christmas and how much I’ve procrastinated. I miss having Wishy home to move the little ornament for each day onto the tree. I hung the wreaths on the doors...and started to put up decorations from the boxes that PaulA brought up from the basement in-between plays during the Giants game.