A night at the aundry mat.

Last night Brian and I loaded up almost all the clothes, sheets and towels we own and headed off to the "Coin Op aundry." Somewhere along the way the "L" fell off the sign. Normally, we'd do our laundry at the apartment. But the communal one washer and one dryer were no match for our large mound of dirty laundry.

Laundry mats are always an interesting place. It was quite hopping last night. We had to wait a few minutes before we could acquire the four washing machines we needed to fit all of our dirties. We began our washes as we listened to the oldies station play over the speakers. Others whirled around us with their laundry carts. One Asian girl had more loads than we did! She must wash people's laundry professionally. There was also a guy who I swear had to have been in a rock band and another guy who looked like a construction worker.

While the washing machines worked their magic Brian and I sat on the bench and reviewed some Chinese. There was an Asian guy sitting next to us. Was he Chinese? I don't know. But, soon he got up and left for another corner of the Coin Op aundry. I almost wonder if he was Chinese and was just that offended by our poor attempt to speak his language.

Dryer time! After all the clothes had been transferred from the washers to the dryers Brian and I sat down again, this time to read quietly. All was peaceful in the Coin Op aundry. Then in came Old Drunk Guy. He was wearing his Army jacket and holding a bottle who's contents were hidden by the paper bag it was in. Old Drunk Guy's first order of business was to inspect the garbage bin. There he found a pillow that had been discarded by some other patron of the Coin Op aundry. He plopped it onto the bench not far from us and sat down. He began mumbling about the surroundings and taking slurps from his mystery bottle.

Shortly after Old Drunk Guy got there I caught Brian laughing at his book. I asked him what was funny, and he read me a short passage. In it the author referred to Fort Bragg. Old Drunk Guy overheard us and began mumbling about Fort Bragg. I took this as a sign to not say anything else, so as not to encourage our bench-mate. Old Drunk Guy continued to mumble about the songs playing over the speakers and the people passing by.

I was pretty happy when our laundry was finally dry. We quickly set to folding it all. Next to us was the construction worker who happened to be wearing an Army jacket similar to Old Drunk Guy's. Old Drunk Guy noticed and began mumbling something about being in the Army and the construction worker not knowing what it was like. Brian and I loaded up our very clean and fresh laundry and made our way to the car. We had to walk past Old Drunk Guy to get there. I think he was talking to us when he said, "Go ahead and leave!" We gladly did.

Next time we'll have to make sure that our laundry isn't so out of control that we have to go to the Coin Op aundry.