Laundry and Other Matters
One of the things I enjoy about the apartment building that I moved to about 8 months ago is that it has many more tenants than the nine-unit converted brownstone where my previous apartment was. It also has a bona fide laundry room, with four washers and three dryers. This is where I have had the most interactions with my neighbors.
Tonight, as I was finishing up, taking my clothes out of the two dryers I had used and loading them back into my laundry bag inside the shopping cart, I chatted with a young woman who was just starting her wash. I warned her that the dryer on the end didn't go at the "high" level, but only at "warm." (Which was why I had needed two dryers.) She seemed surprised. "It's not working? The guy fixed it." I said, "Yes, it's working, but only on low." Then I added, in a jaded way, "It's always something with that dryer."
As I was crossing over into the main part of the lobby (now festooned with an artificial Christmas tree, blinking lights, and those reindeer made out of illuminated wires, accompanied by a repeating loop of very computer-generated-sounding Christmas music that I think must be driving the poor doorman crazy), a couple came in from outside. Or at least I thought they were a couple, but she went off to get her mail and he came straight to the elevator. He seemed friendly, youngish, sort of attractive, so I made the obligatory comment about how cold out it was. At the same time, he was saying "Doing laundry, huh?" looking down at my cart, and I said, "Yup." Then he said, "Smells good." I thought, what does one say to that? Thank you? Was it meant as a compliment? I just said, "Yeah, it's good to have clean clothes."
Great line, yes?
After that we got in the elevator and continued our awkward chatting until I had to get out, a couple of floors before him.
One of the other profound things I said to the guy in the elevator was "Now I can relax." So, I'm going to go do just that. I am recovering from a bout of either food-borne illness or a virus that laid me low for two days and my body is telling me it doesn't want to be sitting up anymore.
More another time.
Tonight, as I was finishing up, taking my clothes out of the two dryers I had used and loading them back into my laundry bag inside the shopping cart, I chatted with a young woman who was just starting her wash. I warned her that the dryer on the end didn't go at the "high" level, but only at "warm." (Which was why I had needed two dryers.) She seemed surprised. "It's not working? The guy fixed it." I said, "Yes, it's working, but only on low." Then I added, in a jaded way, "It's always something with that dryer."
As I was crossing over into the main part of the lobby (now festooned with an artificial Christmas tree, blinking lights, and those reindeer made out of illuminated wires, accompanied by a repeating loop of very computer-generated-sounding Christmas music that I think must be driving the poor doorman crazy), a couple came in from outside. Or at least I thought they were a couple, but she went off to get her mail and he came straight to the elevator. He seemed friendly, youngish, sort of attractive, so I made the obligatory comment about how cold out it was. At the same time, he was saying "Doing laundry, huh?" looking down at my cart, and I said, "Yup." Then he said, "Smells good." I thought, what does one say to that? Thank you? Was it meant as a compliment? I just said, "Yeah, it's good to have clean clothes."
Great line, yes?
After that we got in the elevator and continued our awkward chatting until I had to get out, a couple of floors before him.
One of the other profound things I said to the guy in the elevator was "Now I can relax." So, I'm going to go do just that. I am recovering from a bout of either food-borne illness or a virus that laid me low for two days and my body is telling me it doesn't want to be sitting up anymore.
More another time.
posted by Sarah Sometimes at 9:07 PM
2 Comments:
Awkward or not, it's little exchanges like these--friendly comments about the smell of fresh laundry, for instance--that people don't give New Yorkers credit for. Whenever I visit, I'll have brief conversations with total strangers like that. To me, New Yorkers are quite social, just at a faster pace.
Hope you indeed got some rest and are feeling better now.
Dear Terry,
Thanks for the comment--I'm glad you've had a good experience with my New York compatriots when you've visited. And, yes, I have been resting and getting better, thank you for the good wishes.
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