Ever feel like you have everything planned just right in life only to have something mess up that plan? That's what just happened in my lovely life. My life really is lovely. No joke there and I'm really not saying otherwise, I just get annoyed when things mess up my plan. This week's thing: Washing machine cooking a load of darks consisting of new once-dark wash AE jeans that I loved. Yes, I am talking about the washer and not the dryer, and yes, it "cooked" the load of laundry I had attempted to wash.
I had done one load earlier on Friday afternoon trying to get a jump start on the weekend. I started the machine, dumped the soap, loaded the laundry after it filled, closed the lid and shut the closet. This was around 1:30 p.m. I went about cleaning the house, getting chores done, ate a late lunch with Madeline and did some more cleaning. We then went to pick Ella V. up from school. When we got back home and I got the girls settled in, I ran downstairs to take that load out and start a new load. I entered the room and thought, "weird, the washer is still on the spin cycle?" Opened the closet and then opened the washer and thought, "Whoa! It is still on the spin cycle! For like the last 3 hours! Great! The washer is about to dump on us." The clothes had spun for so long that they were nearly dry. The washer was a little warm and smelled a little hot, but I wasn't too concerned, Just thought maybe the knob/timer dial was acting up and got stuck. So, I threw that load in the dryer and waited for the washer to cool down. Once it had, I started another load with the darks and went back upstairs to finish making dinner. I finished the dinner, ate the dinner, got the kids ready for bed and got everything ready for the next morning's school push-off. After that, we all headed downstairs to wind down. As we entered the room, I thought, "It's still agitating? For like the last 2.5 hours! Terrific! It's broke and I have a full washer drum of darks swimming in hot dark blue water." I took each article of clothing out, rinsed it out in the utility sink and emptied out the water one pitcher full at a time. And now I'm grumpy. I have a ton of laundry and one pile is soaking wet, but not clean, so it can't be dried in the dryer.
After getting that taken care of, I get online to check out new washers and concluded that this is not going to be a cheap replacement. And Jim had to chime in with an annoying laugh and commented, "Poor Melinda, just can't ever catch a break and now has to wait even longer to get her camera." Now I'm even grumpier. I was about 2 weeks away from getting my dream camera. But that's a want, not a need. We can't live without a washer and dryer. If we're going to do this, actually, not if, but when we're going to do this, I want to replace both our washer and dryer. The washer is 12 years old and the dryer is just over 17 years old. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the dryer craps out and I'm tired of our mismatched set. After this discouraging online shopping experience, I came to the realization that I have to go to a Laundromat and it's going to have to be with 2 little kids in tow on a Saturday. No way around it. Too much to wash and Ella not feeling well the past 2 weeks do not go well with visiting family volunteers for letting us use their washer and dryer, although the offers are greatly appreciated.
Fast forward to Saturday morning. I load the car up with 2 overflowing baskets of laundry, soap, bleach and fabric sheets and bag of activities/snacks that will hopefully keep the girls occupied on our journey. We stop at the bank for 2 rolls of quarters ($20) thinking that this will be more than enough, and then continue on to the Eastfield Laundromat on 8th Street, by recommendations from friends. I'm still grumpy. I get everything unloaded including the girls and scope out the options available. I find a block of 6 available washers and get to work occupying 5. Then I look at the digital display for a few minutes. $3.25 per load. Just to wash! I still need quarters to dry and only have about $21 in quarters total. Dryers were a quarter for every 10 minutes. As I'm calculating this in my head and working on starting the loads before the place got too busy, I have Ella V. begging for quarters to gets some goodies out of the gumball/candy machines. Took a while, but I finally got through to her that I needed the quarter to get everything washed and dried. How do people do this every week? It's super expensive. After loading all the washers I needed, we got to sit for 35 minutes. Not hard for me. Not easy for a 5-year-old and 18-month-old. 35 minutes passes and I get the girls occupied by having them help me wheel the laundry carts of clothes to the dryers. Dryers ran really hot and it only took the clothes about 20 minutes to finish, but I had set each for 30 after asking someone how long they typically ran their loads. Thank goodness I asked too, because I was ready to run them an hour. That probably would have really cooked the clothes. After all that, I spent another 20 minutes folding them all into the baskets, loaded up the kids in the car and made multiple trips to load up the laundry and supplies into the car.
Before leaving, one of the Laundromat staff members approached me and thanked me for my girls being so well behaved and that she and her boss were so impressed. While she was talking, I looked over and both girls were just sitting on the bench watching everyone running around. And then I thought to myself, "My girls are great and well behaved." I don't always think this. In fact, I rarely think this. But, they're just kids. And I have too high expectations for them. I sometimes forget that kids like to play. Not sit in a crappy Laundromat for 2 hours on a beautiful Saturday morning. But what do I do after all of that, I get them lunch and drag them to 2 stores to look at washers and dryers with Jim and still expect them to be perfect little humans and not run around or scream or touch the appliances that cost an arm and a leg. I couldn't handle it any longer. 4 hours of kids going beyond antsy is too much for me. Too much for them. I was ready to have a stress attack.
We got home and they were happy and just played with their toys and I had time to calm myself down. Now again, I'm not complaining. My life is truly lovely. It was just an annoying day. And I then put everything in perspective: Laundromats are not at all convenient and are far from cheap, but thank goodness they're available; I love my kids and am so thankful that they are well behaved (I did thank Ella V. for her patience and helping with her sister and acknowledged that I know that it was not easy for her to do in such a boring place. She agreed); it's just appliances and they're not meant to last forever; and it's just a camera, it's not like I'm without. These are things that, in the end, really are not all that important. Life isn't perfect. And plans don't always go as, well, planned, because there's always something.
**Note: Ella V. was happy that I had 4 quarters left at the end and was able to get the candy and gum she'd been eyeing the entire time.
