Today I had to do something I haven't done in years. Gather up all my laundry and go to the laundromat.
It seems that our washer, dryer, oven, and microwave all broke the other day.
At first I thought something was wrong with the electricity but the electric company says that it is fine.
Sometimes the AC will say there's a wiring error and break the breaker but then we just break it back and it comes back on.
However we discovered evidence of something like a lightning strike inside the oven. The element is cracked in several places.
We bought a really long electric cord and plugged it into our neighbor's house but neither the washer nor the dryer would come on from their house either.
That meant it was time to go to the laundromat.
My local laundromat is an interesting place.
It is a Korean run establishment and the neighborhood is mostly Spanish speaking.
When you first walk in there is a big sign on the door that says try our "leave it here" service for one dollar a pound.
You probably don't realize how many pounds of laundry you actually do.
To the left is an indention in the wall with a small shop for buying different detergents. It's pretty cool because it's an actual little shop and there is a small window with a shopkeeper in it.
On the other side of the laundromat is a gift shop which is another indention in the wall that sells things like necklaces and watches and phones and there is also a shopkeeper in a small window.
This laundromat hires and pays two separate shopkeepers.
Source: Giphy.com
There are three different types of washers including a absolutely giant metal washing machine, a double loader, and a top loader.
There is only one type of dryer and the entire left wall past the detergent gift shop is completely full of them.
They are stacked on top of each other and their honestly seems to be hundreds of them.
The middle of the laundromat is row after row after row of washers.
There are bathrooms in the back and in front of the bathroom there is a large jungle gym.
Several small children are always crawling around on the jungle gym while others are sitting on colored blocks around it.
Their parents are watching soap operas on the TVs all around the tops of the ceilings.
Some of them are sitting in the leather massage chairs that line the right hand side of the wall.
A few of the older teenagers are playing video games like Street Fighter 2.
There are probably a total of 12 different styles of vending machines scattered all throughout.
The final thing of interest are the people who decided to do their laundry that day.
First of all you have these super laundry people.
They have special equipment like large hanging metal devices to hang their shirts on and they spend hours folding and folding and folding laundry.
They have multiple types of detergent and fabric softener on them and you can tell that doing laundry for them was something that they had been planning for quite some time.
Next you have the people who just came in out of the heat.
Many of them are laying down in the reclining leather massage chairs.
Some are leaning in the back watching TV and others are just sitting on different wooden benches spread around in other areas.
The third one is the under dressed laundry person.
Inevitably you will find someone that did not wear enough clothes to do their laundry.
I'm guessing they probably say "hey I'm just going to the laundromat......... it's no big deal."
Source: Giphy.com
Today's under dressed laundry person was a very attractive Hispanic woman wearing a tiny black see through dress.
Not that I was looking, but her pink bra and underwear were clearly visible and on display.
Sometimes I think people just want to be looked at.
It was extremely hot outside.
Normally when I do laundry I have a tendency to walk around and look for interesting things outside.
That was not going to happen today so I simply waited for my clothes to finish...... and then set them for 18 minutes in a dryer or two.
They were kind of wet still but at that point I couldn't bear it anymore so I brought them home.
I certainly do hope we get our washer, dryer, oven, and microwave fixed soon.
