Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Laudromat

One of the few things I miss about the old apartment is having my own washer and dryer. It's pretty much the only thing I miss about the old place...and really not even all that much. They were outside, rusty, beat up, but man they did their job and they did it well. The new apartment does has a washer and dryer. The problem lies in their condition. They look far better than our old guys at the old apartment, but they work horribly!

First, it was just the dryer. You have to run the clothes through twice just to get them dry...sometimes a third time. I couldn't figure out if it was the property owner trying to make extra money off of us or if it was really that bad. Then, the washer started having issues. Over flowing and not draining. The dryer not working was annoying, but the washer was now a problem too. So, I gave the manager a call and there is now a fix it ticket put in to have them repaired...three weeks later I'm still waiting.

After waiting for the last three weeks for the repairs, I'm no longer wondering why no one else called the repairs in to the manager. I also decided it was time to hit the laundromat.

It brought back memories. The last time I had been in a laundromat was while my sister and I were traveling. Washing clothes was very far and few between. We were pretty gross really. We'd wash what we needed to in the sink at night and then well...we'd wash when we could. Don't worry...showers were much much more frequent! We had been traveling for well over a month and were heading to our family's house in Germany and knew we had to wash our clothes. So, Lindsay and I brought everything we could possibly wash to an Italian laundromat. The little man running the shop, showed us what we needed to know. He was very patient with us and our non-italian speaking. The only problem was, how do I wash everything I have...including, what I was wearing. The laundromat guy was nice enough to pretend not to notice when I stripped down to my long johns and even nicer not to notice when I switched from my long johns into a freshly washed pair of jeans...so my long johns could then be washed.

So, with my happy Italian laundromat memories in mind, I headed down to the local corner laundromat. Which turned out to be a lot less magical than my laundromat memories. Lots of people, searching for a washer, carrying in a million bags of clothes, trying to remember laundromat etiquette, cleaning lady staring at me...I didn't love it, but it seemed to be going well. I got four loads of clothes loaded and was loading up my fifth bag, when I noticed I was being circled by the laundromat cleaning lady.

Cleaning Lady "Sweety, you need to get here earlier to wash."
Me "Ah...I'm sorry?"
Cleaning Lady "Look, Sweety, you need to start washing earlier. I guess I can wait a little for your clothes to dry but next time earlier"
Me "I'm sorry, I'm confused"
Cleaning Lady "We close at 9:30. I can wait a little while but next time get here earlier"
Me "Your sign says last wash at 9:30, it's only 8:45"
Cleaning Lady "Yeah 9:30"
Me "Your sign says you close at 10:30. Last wash at 9:30."
Cleaning Lady "I close at 9:30 and I clean up until 10:30"
Me pointing at the sign "uh..."
Cleaning Lady walking away "Next time earlier"

Business Hours 6:30am - 10:30pm
Last Wash 9:30pm


The sign seemed pretty straight forward to me. The last wash could be put in at 9:30, so that your clothes will be in the dryer and most likely dry by the time the laundromat closes at 10:30!  I know I'm not an idiot! Then I was a little miffed. She totally called me out in front of all the other people washing their clothes and now no one was looking me in the eye. Apparently they knew the confusing hours and now I was the laundromat outcast. My sister thought I should tell her to suck it. Which is always mature...but I really wanted to be able to finish washing and drying my clothes.

Then I spied the suggestion box on the wall. I stared at the box and tried to decide if I was annoyed enough to write a passive aggressive suggestion to either post the correct business hours or explain to your employee what your sign actually means...cause I don't like being kicked out of laundromats early because your employee doesn't understand it. Then I decided I didn't really care all that much and besides there was one guy still drying his clothes as I left and he was in way more trouble than I was!

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Slacker

I've been catching some hell for not having blogged in forever. I really do deserve it. There have been times over the last month, when I could have stopped and popped out a blog for you...but I didn't. I apologize. I miss blogging and telling all the funny and strange crap that happens.

A lot has happened over the last two months. Mom moved into a new condo, my sister-in-law moved into a new home, and finally...FINALLY...we moved off of gangster street! Hallelujah and amen! We moved into a cute apartment across town. Slightly bigger but with a lot more closet space, a dedicated kitchen and an area for my grandmother's dining table. I have missed having my grandma's table...It's been 7 years since I had to put it in storage. Anyway, there are a lot of great things about this place. Over all it has a much better feel. I didn't realize how much nicer it felt until we went back to the old neighborhood to pick up our mail. Wow, what a difference!

Part of the reason it's taken so long to get settled has been because of our cats. At the end of December we took in a stray dog. Very sweet and loving. A tiny thing really. However, us bringing this tiny thing into our house pissed off the cats. Dexter who has forever been our outside wild guy, took off. It's not unusual for him to take off really. He's always been our roamer. He's not ours, as much as we're one of his favorite food stop offs and a little affection. Bob took off a week later. Bob missing is very odd. Mario heard him meowing the next morning but couldn't find him. I'm not sure if someone took off with him, took him in or a coyote got him...hopefully it was one of the first two.

It's been over a month now and it's been so hard. I know the 5 local pounds far more than I ever thought I would, I've handed out fliers door to door, hung my clothes out for them to smell, took the dog to my in-laws for a few weeks and even consulted a psychic. I can only hope that they come home or have found someone to treat them well. I have to admit I am the jealous type though...I want my babies back. So, I keep looking. After making it a full time job for the last month, I realized that I just have to wait and see what happens. I will still hand out fliers and look, but it might be up to them to come home or someone to let them out.

One thing I have to appreciate is how good people can be. One of my friends has been there every step of the way. Handing out fliers, going to the pound with me time after time, putting up with my crying and has just been there for me in general. With Mario working sooo much, I can't have imagined dealing with this by myself. I owe her so much. Other friends and my family have really been there also, listening to me cry and letting me talk it through. One of the biggest surprises has been the people in the neighborhood. They have been so nice! So many people wishing me luck or calling because they saw a cat, or just saying they'll help keep an eye out. I guess I didn't expect so many people to be so cool. They really have been nice. I guess I've been so used to people with bad attitudes on our old street, that I didn't expect so much understanding about my missing cats.

So, I'm finally trying to get my life back to normal. I'm doing what I can to get my cats to come home, but we really needed to get our new apartment functional. It's taken until now really to get this place in any semblance of order. Mario and I spent the weekend getting through the last of the boxes and moving things around. It's definitely closer to where it needs to be. Which means that I will hopefully be spending more time blogging. 


 Here's our little Tula. Our tiny little rat who scared off two cats that were easily twice the size of her.