Joy in Unexpected Places

So my washing machine broke. On the same day as our van. Not a good week. Or so I thought.

Now, we all know how I feel about piled up laundry.... it's a tad overwhelming for me. Having no dryer was bad enough and an adjustment, but I got used to it and didn't mind eventually. It did take more time and pre-planning however.

Fast forward to having piles of laundry, no dryer, no washing machine, no van (though that was brief) and no money to buy another washer. What do I do? Panic? Cry? Yell incoherently? Rant and rave and say "woe is me"? No. I actually tried to fix it. But it defies fixing unless we dump the thing upside down and do surgery on it and that is NOT what I'm planning on doing. If hubby chooses to do so, well, then that's his choice. No. I went to the laundromat.

While camping in Nova Scotia a couple years ago, we encountered a huge thunderstorm that lasted most of the night and drenched our tent and much of our belongings. We, rather I, spent the most of the next day at a laundromat in Truro washing and drying our stuff and I have to say, my experience transformed my previous thinking and preconceptions about laundromats. It was an immaculately clean, bright, cheery and most pleasant place to spend the day. Comfy chairs, wide variety of magazines, many machines and helpful staff for the uninitiated.

Having that memory in mind, I searched for the best place to wash my clothes that I could find. The first place was more like my childhood memories and though it was adequate and close to my favourite dollar and grocery store, I wanted to find someplace better. And I did. I've been back there twice now and would highly recommend it. The woman on duty was helpful and didn't mind showing me how to do things, there were lots of machines of all sizes and I was happy to know that my many baskets of dirty clothes fit quite nicely into the two biggest machines, saving time and money.

Joy came because I discovered that the semi-pristine state of the laundromat (or rather, the lack of kids toys, work paraphenelia and the cluttered state of my house), the comforting hum of the machines and the quiet soothed my senses and restored my peace in a way I didn't expect. Yes, I'm putting money into someone else's pocket and I have to load and unload my laundry but for now, I'm fine with all of this. It is 2 hours of enforced slow time for me where I can relax and be quiet if I so choose. The bonus of course is that my laundry gets done completely from start to finish so that when I walk in the door all that needs doing is to put it away. Joy.