Adventures with Laundry

A few months back I was doing laundry at the neighborhood laundromat when I observed what I deemed very strange behavior from one of the other customers. My clothes were tumbling around the dryer and I was sitting against the window reading a book when I noticed a man moving down the row of dryers and stopping at each dryer along the day. When he stopped, he stared into the dryer and mouthed numbers with his lips. After a 10 or so seconds he would move on to the next dryer. He went up and down each aisle of the Laundromat and when he had finished, he started all over again. I nicknamed him the *Rainman of the Laundromat.* I had forgotten about this story until I was doing laundry with my friend Bean a few weeks ago and she asked if I saw the Rainman anymore. It took me a moment to remember and then told her, "No, laundry here is pretty boring, nothing exciting ever happens." I guess now I can consider those my famous last words...

I was with my friend Bean again last night and we had literally a TON of laundry. Earlier in the evening we had crammed it all into 10 super-sized washers and then load by load moved it to the super-size dryers. We had about 15 minutes to kill until the first dryer was done, so we stepped outside. It was a beautiful evening and as I was sitting on one of the outdoor chairs on the sidewalk in front of the Laundromat when Bean pointed to a man standing inside and she was laughing so hard that she could not get the words out. When I turned around I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a man standing in front of one of the washing machines in his underwear and a sweater. I was dying. Of course we tried to get the camera phone out super quick, but were not quick enough because before we knew it he was seated and it just wasn't as funny.

After regaining our composure we went back inside to begin the task of folding the TON of laundry. We were spying to see if we could get a picture of the man in his underwear but all we got was the photo above and all you can see his legs. Then about halfway through the first dryer-full of laundry we heard the woman that works at the Laundromat ask the underwear bearing man to cover up. He began yelling, "THE DOG PISSED ON MY PANTS!" and whenever she replied with any sort of comment he just repeated his statement over and over again. Finally the disruption caused Bean and I to walk over and watch. When he saw us he looked at Bean and said, "What are you looking at Bitch!" And then he began pounding on the windows with his fists and throwing things. The laundromat clerk came downstairs and asked if she could stay with us because she was frightened. We told her that we were calling the police and affirmed to her that she didn't deserve to be spoken to in the manner. Bean picked up her cell phone and called the police who took their sweet time getting there (10+ minutes). The police made him remove his wet pants from the dryer and put them on and then gather the rest of his things and leave. They instructed him to never come back. We finished up our laundry and headed home.

I wonder what will happen next time I do laundry....