I have decided to stop doing my own laundry. From now on, I will drop my laundry off and have some stranger do it for me. Why? Simply put, I have too many issues when I do my own laundry. From having to sit on a washer to reserve it, to dealing with inconsiderate laundry washers, and now having dealt with a washing machine that decided to break while washing my clothing. That is correct, I put my laundry in the only empty washer to return finding my laundry sitting in a puddle of water and the machine blinking at me like I did something wrong.
I opened the door thinking it was done with the complete wash cycle only to let water pour onto my boots. Ugh, now I don’t even know how much of the wash cycle was completed. My laundry smelled like soap, so I assumed it was clean. The floor was disgustingly dirty, so I pulled my laundry bag out and put it on top of the washer. I started to ring my clothes out by hand letting the excess water fall to the floor. As I got to the bottom of the washer, my sleeves and boots equally soaked, I saw the water inside the machine was brown. Ick, “Maybe I should rewash these,” I thought. All the other washers were occupied, so I made a snap decision to just put everything in a dryer and call it a night. It was already nine thirty and I didn’t want to waste anymore time waiting for another washer, washing it again, and then hoping to get an available dryer. It smelled clean, that’s all that mattered, right?
My one ton laundry bag in tow dripping a steady stream of water, I found an open dryer as the previous occupier was finishing up folding his clothing. This is something I also do not understand. The dryer is done drying your clothing and you stand there occupying the dryer, slowly pulling out your clothing, and folding it on top of the dryer while innocent bystanders waiting for a dryer stand with dripping, wet, and heavy laundry bags. I finally throw my dripping clothes into the dryer, set it for an hour, and walk away.
Forty-five minutes later I returned to find my clothes still soaking and the interior of the dryer just as wet. I noticed the dryer next to it was empty and switched my clothing from wet dryer to dry dryer hoping this would give my laundry a fresh start.
Another forty-five minutes passed. My roommate is asleep and my other roommate was running her post office. I went to check on my clothes one more time to find they were still very wet. I did not want to keep running in and out of the room disturbing my sleeping roommate, so I stood there and waited. There were two other females in the laundry room. I learned that each had six loads of laundry to do and were occupying all available washers and soon all available dryers. They were friendly though and playing music, so I stayed and chatted with them.
On the other side of me, hovering awkwardly over two dryers trying to be flirtatious, was a rather large male E6 and a female E4. I did not want to burst their morale bubble by telling them their flirting was inappropriate because of their rank and I did not know their situation; they could be married and just never changed names. Highly doubtful with their level of flirting, but who was I to ruin morale. There was no touching involved, just flirting and folding of laundry. To distract myself, I leaned against my dryer and stared at two signs taped to the wall facing the row of dryers. One was written in Dari and one was written in Pashtu, the native languages of this country. There was a stop sign and two stick figures, one male and one female, with X’s over the chest area and private parts area. The fine print at the bottom translated what was written into English. It said, “Do Not Touch” in the stop sign, and the rest detailed what was considered an inappropriate touch. I began to look from one sign to the other to find the difference in the two dialects, but since everything was squiggles and dots, I did not get very far.
As the couple left, I turned to check on my laundry once more. It was still soaked. The dryer next to mine was now available and before the other two females had a chance to get to it, I put half my clothes into it and started it. Thirty minutes later, my clothes were finally dry! I emptied the original dryer first. Some items were still damp, but a night lying out in my room would easily resolve this. The second dryer’s clothes were completely dry and the clothing nearly burnt my hand as I moved it from the dryer to my laundry bag.
I had to chuckle a bit to myself on the walk from the laundry room to my MOD because my laundry was steaming in the cold air. By the time I had my laundry folded and put away, it was almost midnight! My roommate was snoring softly and my other roommate was still running her post office. I set my alarm in hopes it would wake up my roommates in the morning. I know that sounds vindictive, but I am the only one in the room that has to work on Sundays and this tiny ounce of revenge for all their foolishness makes me smile.
We are having a BBQ today for the New Year. A little early, I know, but Sunday’s are for relaxing and there is little to no manpower to grill, set up, and celebrate during the weekdays. We are having Italian sausage, steak, chicken, salad, macaroni salad, and pie! Oh how I love pie! Reminds me of the last pie I made before I deployed. Dad and I stole apples from the neighbor’s tree and created two pies and a big batch of baked apples. Mmmm, delicious! Can’t wait to do that again! Get the apple collecting buckets ready Pops, six more months!!!
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