Day 14: March 14, 2024

I had to remind myself to breathe this morning. Inhale, exhale. 

I stripped my bed and got my laundry together to take downstairs. I planned to do laundry on Thursday all week, that way I would leave my bed clean and have clean clothes to pack for my imminent departure. 

With my rolling laundry cart (one of my luxury purchases of 2023 that is on the top 10 purchases list), I caught the elevator down and let myself into the laundry room, which as predicted, was empty on a Thursday morning. 

I loaded up two machines, cursing as I remembered this would be a $10 laundry excursion. One has to be stingy and meticulously plan when doing laundry without in unit. I filled the drawer with my detergent and went to get my laundry card to pay. Where was my card? I checked my cart. Nope. I went through the other pockets of my wallet. Nope. More curses. Ok. Fine, I’d get a new card. I went over to the machine and took my credit card out and followed the prompts. English. New Card. Swipe Credit Card. Swipe Credit Card. Swipe Credit Card. I’m SWIPING!! I wanted to scream at it. 

I knew I had an extra card somewhere in the apartment so I ran back upstairs and scrounged through drawers until I pulled it out. 

I ran back downstairs and went back to my new arch nemesis. I put in the laundry card and followed the prompts. English. Refill Card. Swipe Credit Card. Swipe Credit Card. Swipe Credit Card. I’M F***ING SWIPING!!! This time I might’ve said some things out loud. 

There was a laundry card machine at another building that I had to go to when I first moved in to get a new card because, surprise, our building’s machine wasn’t working. I stalked my way over in my INDOOR shoes and, surprise, the machine had disappeared. All that remained were vending machines and an ATM. More curses. It was only 9am, resident services wasn’t open, and my roommates were both in office, and I had a yoga class at 10:30. I had planned my laundry time out to the minute. 

Suffice to say, my laundry is still sitting in its machines unwashed. It will remain there until I can figure out how to fill my gosh darn laundry cards. Rest assured, my laundry WILL be done today. Otherwise, I’ll be going commando at my work conference all next week. Yoga at 10:30 is probably going to be good for me.