Laundromat is the new bus

In the year and a half that I haven't been updating this blog, I have moved to a new apartment and a new neighborhood.

In my old apartment, I had a designated spot in an indoor garage that allowed me to keep my car parked for long periods of time. I could then take the bus to and from work. The bus trip was quick, free (work paid for my bus pass) and environmentally conscious. Also, as I have mentioned before, these bus trips have led to some interesting stories. At this particular apartment, there was a number of washing machines and dryers which allowed me to do laundry in peace because there was usually no one else doing laundry at the same time.

At my "new" apartment, I do not have a designated parking spot, so I have to drive my car to and from work to avoid getting a parking ticket. I park in my work's garage (for free again, because my awesome employers pays for the downtown parking ramp access). One would think that I would be missing out on the awesome bus-related stories. But with no washer or dryer in my apartment now, I have to use a laundromat, which means AWKWARD STRANGER MOMENTS!  yaaaaaay? Here are some examples of the stories I have collected in my brain jail so far:

I'm sure, for that particular guy, that the door was leading to Narnia 
I have tried the two different laundromats. The first one was closer to my apartment. It was extremely small, and all of the appliances were so old they ended up ruining some of my clothes with what looked to be rust stains . It wasn't more than a few months before I decided to switch laundromats. But before I did, I had the following experience:

Being too lazy to travel back and forth between home and the laundromat, I parked myself on a bench with a magazine, snack and my phone to entertain myself while I waited for my clothes to finish their washing and drying. Early on in the washing period (and I should probably note here that I was completely alone in the building) I notice a man pacing back and forth outside glancing in the window. Finally he walks in, goes to the bathroom, stays in there for a few minutes, walks out without acknowledging me ever. This little cycle of disappearing, reemerging, pacing outside on the sidewalk, jaunt to the bathroom for 3 minutes, exiting , REPEAT, occurred about 3 times during my entire "stay" for the night, which was about 2-2.5 hours.

Just before I left, I stuck my head in the now empty bathroom to see what the big deal was. What I saw with my eyes can only be described by the afternoon specials, or Lifetime Movies, or weird Current TV documentaries as a heroin and/or crack den.  Ok, I will admit it.  It wasn't the rust stains! I'm pretty sure the probable druggie was the catalyst to me selecting a new laundromat.

Maybe YOU make faces when you fold your laundry
At the second laundromat, I was shaking out my clothes and folding them after they got out of the dryer. I could see out of the corner of my eye that a lady was laughing (no, not giggling, or smiling - just full out laughing) at me. 

Me: May I help you (with a hesitant smile)?
Lady (not too much older than me): Your face just looks real funny when you fold clothes (contorts face to mimic what I was doing).
Me: Oh, ok. 

How Rude

Getting down with the adult contemporary
If my phone battery runs low, I will tempt the fates by entering the laundromat without a form of distraction while my phone charges in my car. Which also means I am subjected to listening to adult contemporary which plays overhead instead of sticking my head phones on and listening to music play on my phone.

This one time a woman was seriously getting down to the music being played by the laundromat. Not a fully body get down, but more of a "Holland get down" which involves sitting down, and moving the upper body.  Except this lady's upper body movement was all quasi-thrash metal, quasi-Keith Moon (or name another crazy drummer). She was totally pulling out the bull horns too. And all while there was some Hall and Oates song playing (probably not true, but in my memory it is the soundtrack to this particular event).

Ok, so this entry is getting too long and I am too tired. There is more to tell, and I am sure more to share. But in meantime, adieu!