Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Yellow

Sometimes I wonder how on earth such an assertive woman like my mother and a confident man like my father ever raised such a wimpy woman like myself.

One of the guys that lives below us came to our door at the beginning of winter asking us if he could pay us to use our washer and dryer in the basement. He only has a bike and it was a snowy winter so we said, sure. Our arrangement was that he would use the washer and dryer on Sundays so that all my stuff would be out of there and that he would pay us $5 for each time he used them. Well, he didn't really pay $5 every time, but that wasn't a big deal to me. It's not like we're doing this to make money. We were doing him a favor. He's still using them now, even though it's spring, but again, not a big deal. Then the past couple of weeks he's been using them on days other than Sunday. He's left his stuff in the washer and dryer and I've had to move it over in order to use my own machines. It was annoying, but I didn't say anything. Then, today, a Tuesday mind you, he moved my clothing over from the washer to the dryer in order to use the machines.

I found my nice Anthropologie dress with the silk trim in the pile on top of the dryer. He did not look at the tag on that rather expensive dress before just throwing it into the dryer. And it's not even his day to use it! I called my mom so, so mad and she told me I had to go talk to the boy and ask what he was going to do about it. That's an expensive dress and it's not like I can afford to replace it.

I gathered up all my courage and outrage and walked down to the front door. I rang. The other roommate answered the door. This threw me off. I was expecting to talk to the perpetrator of the "crime." Instead I told the roommate the situation and asked if he would please tell Andrew that I needed to talk to him when he got home. Then the roommate said, "Oh! I moved the laundry over for him. I'm so sorry!" I had no idea what to say to this turn of events so then I said (and this is where I totally let myself down), "Well, accidents happen." Then I started to cry just a little bit from frustration, and confusion, and surprise. So then he said, "Let me give you a hug." So the guy that just ruined my dress gave me a hug. A hug! I had no idea how to get the conversation back in the right direction so I left. Ack! I'm such a big wimp.

PS. Luckily I came back upstairs and worked a little on the dress and it looks like it'll still be OK. The silk isn't as pretty as it used to be, but it's not really "ruined" anymore. Man I'm such a wimp.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

On the bright side - you are raising a daughter confident enough to touch a pidgeon!

Maggie said...

Confident and persistent. She had to work to get to that pidgeon.

Anonymous said...

You should have went nuggett crunching. really, everyone makes mistakes. Do they still smoke in the apartment?

TRS said...

Oh! I would be so mad!!
I'm not as sweet as you - I would have let him have it!

okay enough !!!!'s.
This happened to my friend. She lived in an apt building and used the community washers and dryers. Sometimes she would go down to move her laundry and find it in the dryer... already tumbling. Hmm. She would just move someone else's laundry to the top of the dryer - because who has enough $$$ to dry other people's laundry?

One day she ran into the man who was tossing her stuff in the dryer, and by way of conversation said... Oh I just move finished loads to the top of dryer. He got all steamed up and said, huffily, "Well, some of us like to help other's out!"
She didn't have the nerve to tell him how many items of hers he had ruined in the dryer!!!

Men don't understand about delicate clothes. Mr. Burns offered to move my laundry once... I had to stop him and explain that not everything goes in the dryer. That stumped him for a while.

Anyway, that said I think you should tell him that he put your spendy dress in critcal condition. Take away his laundry priveledges. Or make Dan tell him!

Maggie said...

I expect to have situations like that when you have communal washer/dryers, but not when it's my own personal machines. I should be able to keep my things in there for DAYS if I want to. (which I don't do because eww)

Yes, they still somke occasionally. I'm counting down the days until we move.

I think I'm going to have Dan tell him he's not allowed to use our machines anymore. I'll just wait to ask him until after his finals this friday.

Anonymous said...

Do you want me to kick his !#$%@? I will, you know...I'm only 4 hours away...and I'll bring hell with me

Maggie said...

Thanks Shannon. Maybe I'll bring you in the next time they decide to be so loud they wake my daughter up every hour all through the night. That's when I really want heads to roll.

KevandChels said...

you're so cute maggie:) This is chelsey btw. I found your blog on Angela's and I love your writing style:)