wednesday october 1

today i went to the nearby laundromat to do a load of laundry. it’s only the third time i’ve been there, so i’m still getting the lay of the land, and wasn’t sure how late it closed. the sign there seemed to indicate that it was open until 10:00 though, so after i finished washing my clothes at about 9:00, i threw them in the dryer. five minutes later, the old lady who runs the place walked up to me and we had a very disjointed conversation (she doesn’t speak english well), the upshot of which was this: actually, it closes at 9:00. but because i’d invested a bunch of quarters in the dryer already, she’d just lock the door, turn off most of the lights, and let me wait there until my clothes were dry, at which point she’d come back and let me out. this was very nice of her and ended up working out perfectly fine (though my guilt was palpable as we stood there watching the my clothes go round during the last two minutes of the dryer cycle). still, for a few minutes there while i sat in the dark, i thought i might’ve misinterpreted what she meant and ended up in a locked-in-the-mall-overnight style scenario, albeit in a much smaller and more boring place.