11:51 p.m. | 2005-02-20 A Sunday Like No Other. Yesterday, I spent many, many hours attempting to do my laundry. To no avail. See, TheHotel only has one washer and one dryer (coin-operated, of course). Saturday night is usually my night. As far as laundry goes. (Not that we have organized laundry rights, just Saturday night usually works for me.) But, that was not the case. I have some new neighbors. I�m guessing she�s on the lease and he�s not. Why? Because he�s extremely aggressive, breaks all the rules and picks fights. Not a typical profile for TheHotel. She, on the other hand, is extremely thin, non-communicative and quite submissive. I�m guessing this is her lease he�s living under. Mind you, this is all guess-work. Albeit, there�s a dash of intuition thrown in there. Actually, based on my studies and experience, a huge domestic violence situation moved in down the hall. I�m not thrilled about that, but it happens everywhere. In fact, they�re not the only couple in this building that fits that profile. Fortunately, there�s only a few and they�re the only �violent� ones. (I don�t know if there is any violence, but lots of yelling of the kind that suggests violence. The other DV folks? More subtle. Not so loud yet still a slow, methodical erosion of self-esteem. Same effect, pretty much.) Anyway, I tried several times to do laundry yesterday. Only to have my attempts foiled by Mr. Domestic Violence. He, apparently, was doing about ten load of laundry in one day. Kudos to him for doing the chore, but minus points for not recognizing that it�s not nice to commandeer the laundry room for a full day to do back up laundry. I don�t know what he was washing and drying either, but there�s red lint scattered from the basement all the way up here. I was gonna �laundry hop� him � which sounds really nasty but is merely an assertive approach to cleaning clothes � but I didn�t because he has an �anger management issue�. I gave him some space based solely on that fact. As I stood back, several different people snuck into the mix. Saturday night is normally quiet when it comes to laundry. Not so much this time. I gave up. As there were a couple of things I had to attend to today, I actually got up at 6:00AM � 6:00AM � to do laundry this morning. Insane. Honestly? I haven�t got up at 6:00AM on a Sunday forever, I think. I don�t ever recall making such a mad move. Not a morning person at all. Certainly not on the weekends. Sunday in particular. But I did. And, I carried my laundry down to the basement only to discover both the washer and the dryer in full swing. What? I went back upstairs, set a timer and crawled back in bed. Half and hour later, I checked it out again. This time, I decided to laundry hop as I had that chance. I cleared the washer, threw my stuff in and went back to the timer and bed. I threw the second load in quite successfully. Basically, I did laundry from 6:00-9:00am. Since I was basically �up�, I threw the ingredients for ham and scalloped potatoes into the slow cooker at 7:00am. And, I met up with my laundry foe when I was folding my second and last load. Another DV guy, except it�s all pretty much verbal and his wife cuts him off at the knees. (He�s an older guy who can�t stop pushing buttons, if you will; she�s a younger woman who just can�t take it anymore. As a resident, he annoys the hell out of everyone in the building. Which embarrasses his wife to no end. Very sad marriage there.) Anyway, he barged into the laundry room while I was folding my clothes. He was happy to finally throw his last load of laundry (two shirts, one pair of jeans) into the dryer after the two-hour wait I caused by laundry hopping. He didn�t seem put out though. He happily told me he started doing laundry at 3:00AM. 3:00AM. Then he just started rambling about a bunch of stuff so I left. That�s a typical exchange between us. I�m a live human being who sometimes occupies the same space and he just talks. Not to me, mind you, he just talks. I feel bad for him sometimes, but not enough to hang around. And my presence doesn�t seem to be necessary; he just keeps talking whether I�m there or not. With laundry done and the slow cooker filled, I went back to bed for a couple of hours. I needed some rest before I set about to do the next thing on my list. The next thing? Clothes shopping. Haven�t been for a while. A long while. Not a favorite activity for me. I had to mentally prepare for it, actually. But, I did go. And, I bought a bunch of stuff. Including high-heeled shoes. (We�ll have to see how that goes.) Just preparing to shop was tiring. I had to figure out what to wear � light clothes since clothing stores are so warm � had to forgo my normal water intake to avoid restroom stops and had to plan my strategy. (Just to note: my strategy is improving but it needs help.) I�ve been studying fashion and whatnot so I was encouraged. I did well on several fronts but forgot about a few things. I remembered a lot of important things though, so that was good. Also good? I bought a $250 suit jacket for $52. It�s a black jacket from their winter line of clothes, but it�s classic so that�ll work for many a years. Better yet, I didn�t have to pay for parking. I got three free hours and I left with two minutes to spare. Oh, and I got the best pair of jeans in the whole world. As soon as I put them on, I knew. Fantastic. Expensive as all get out, but I love them like I love a newborn puppy. Except I didn�t kiss them. The high-heels? We�ll have to see how that all works out. They don�t generally go well with chronic muscle spasms and spatial difficulties, but near a wall? Yeah, that might work. I have to say though, as my first high-heels in years, I didn�t go for cute as much as I went for shoes that had �safety straps� or someway to stay in them. And, the heel is not so high. They�re �starter� shoes for me. Lets just hope my feet like them because they tend to blister up whenever I introduce them to any new pair of shoes. Serious blisters. Like, I can�t walk blisters. My feet don�t like change much. The rest of me is ready for a change, but you know what my feet would say (or perhaps you don�t): �we have to carry the burden of you�. Which, pretty much, they do. So, after all this laundry and radical clothes and shoe shopping, I came home and fixed my breakfasts and lunches for the next week. Plus, did dishes and other pesky chores. And, finally I sat down to relax and write this entry. Truly, this has been a Sunday like no other. P.S. If anyone wants to "steal" my quiz from my last entry, feel free. That's why it's there and not under my matress. your thoughts? seed flower