Laundromania!!

There is something to be said about laundromats. After my spring cleaning relapse yesterday, I got back in the saddle today and loaded the Accord down with all the dirty fabrics in my home that were not stapled to furniture.

I was a whirling dervish at the laundromat: six double-size loads plus two loads in the "big ones" -- the washers that hold up to 55 pounds of stuff. By the time I got everything loaded and on its washing way, the first load was already done. Man, I worked up a sweat keeping up with the wash loads finishing and getting the dryers (11 total) loaded. I had a 12 minute window when there were no loading/unloading duties, so I was able to zip down to Java House for a white caramel mocha and a Scotcheroo. SCORE!

When I was younger -- you know, college age or shortly thereafter -- I dreamed of the time I would have my own washer and dryer and would be able to wash my clothes in the comfort of my own home. A sure sign of being a grown up is when you start purchasing major appliances. The only thing that would be better is if I had the disposable income to pay someone to do my laundry. I really dislike mundane tasks like cleaning and washing when there are so many more interesting things to do on the weekend or a day off. That's the beauty of a laundromat. What literally would have taken me two days to do at home in my little washing machine was fluffed and folded in about 75 minutes. I'm all about efficiencies.

Of course, you have to deal with the borderline creepy factor of laundromats. Laundromania isn't too bad, they have multiple TVs to watch and free Internet, although it still is just a little bit un-clean and you wonder about the unclaimed clothing in the "lost and found."

Clearly a weekday morning is the prime time to go. When I first arrived there was just one other guy in the place. For a while, I was there alone; which, with my sometimes overactive imagination, really creeped me out. So, I called Katie to tell her I was at Laundromania alone just in case I went missing. Someone would know where to start searching for clues. A short time later, a 20-something guy came in with one basket of clothes that he threw into a single machine. Then he wandered around for a bit looking perplexed and finally asked me in non-native English if the bottle he had was soap (international grad student was my assumption on this one -- probably northern European). I looked, it was a bottle of bleach alternative for colored clothes. I told him it wasn't soap, that it was something you usually mixed with soap. He seemed confused. I was about to offer him my soap that I had already taken back out to the car, but then he asked if it would still clean his clothes. I said sure, so he poured in way more than he probably needed to and disappeared.

A young family came in with about six baskets of wet clothes. Ahhh, yes, dryer problems at home. I had a similar problem a few months back, only my washer was on the blink. So I washed my clothes at the laundromat and took them home to dry. Another family of grad students I suspected, with a cute little boy about 3. I'm guessing they were from an African country.

Two young women came in next, each with a small basket. They were very confused about the front loading machines; it took them a good 10 minutes of discussion before they were operational. A young guy came in and loaded his clothes in a washing machine then walked around the laundromat for 5 minutes trying to find where to buy tokens. He asked the young family where to buy them. The man told him that the machines just used quarters. The guy replied, "Oh quarters, I didn't see that." Too much time at the Sports Column last night? The signs on every machine that read "Insert quarters here" weren't obvious enough, I guess. Oh, I did notice that since my last foray into Laundromania, they have upgraded about half the machines to accept credit or debit cards. Handy, because it is a pain to tote $30 worth of quarters around.

A little cross-section of Iowa City visited Laundromania this morning. I wonder if the other people there were observing the other patrons like I was. What did they think of me? They might have wondered why I was sweating as if I'd been on the treadmill for 45 minutes. Honest to God, I must have been having a hot flash...I had sweat dripping off my nose, and I had to remove my sweatshirt 5 minutes in to my work. Or, maybe they wondered why I had so much dirty stuff to wash? Or, maybe they wondered what I was doing at the laundromat on a workday.

At any rate...you can't beat a laundromat if you want to do all your laundry in the shortest amount of time possible.