The Washateria

My dryer is broken, so I had to go to the washateria today. Talk about being humbled. There's all kinds of people there. Everyone is looking at everyone else, and probably wondering why you're not washing your clothes at home, I guess.

But maybe the economy has kind of "equalized" things a bit. There was a Mom with 2 of her blonde kids, a black older couple both folding the clothes, a few non-descript types, and the employees who looked like they were from a poorer part of town.

I am embarrassed and annoyed to be there; with my Coach purse, and driving my Lexus SUV, I guess for those 2 reasons I kind of looked out of place. Please don't get me wrong, I grew up in a poor side of town, so I'm not saying that I'm above the washateria crowd, but I guess it's been a long time since I had to lug my 2 big laundry baskets, and sit around and wait for my clothes to wash and dry.

Then I got hungry, but I didn't want to leave just to pick up a hamburger. So i got a package of Fritos from the vending machine, except that when I pushed the button, the Fritos moved just slightly, but didn't drop down like they were supposed to. So I told the lady at the desk, and she said "did you put the correct amount of money into the machine?" Duh! So she sent another girl to open the machine with the keys. Finally, I get my package of Fritos, and ate my nutritious lunch! I looked at the soda machine, but I thought "nahh", that's OK, I can control my thirst, plus I had already consumed my quota of bad food for the day.

While munching on my Fritos, I picked up a magazine from the stack. I found the "New Yorker" Magazine. I thought, well at least I have something interesting to read. The first thing I noticed was that the advertisements did not have any website addresses listed in their ads. So I looked at the date on the cover, and it said February of 2005! Wow! I can't remember the article that I read if my life depended on it, but it was outdated anyway.

I went to check on my clothes, and they were done being washed. So on to the dryer. Another 35 minutes then I folded my clothes, and left the place.

After I started thinking about my day, I came to the conclusion that I had just aired my dirty laundry out in public!