Monday, March 30, 2009

A Laundry Tale

So, one of the advantages of working from home is the ability to throw a load in in the middle of the workday. My building has two laundry rooms and uses those laundry cards that you can load up.
So, I put a load in and went back up to work. I went back down and was moving my clothes to the dryer, pausing to shake out certain items that get wrinkly. (I read this tip a while back, and while folding things while they are still warm also helps a lot, I have found this helps too.)
So, I'm doing this and I notice a guy eying the machine.He starts talking at me, mentioning that some people really take a lot of time with their stuff and don't properly consider others that are waiting.
I nod and smile. Since I have not responded appropriately, he continues suggesting that if people like me would move their stuff to the tables to sort it through then it would help everyone out and be less inconsiderate.
I respond that I think his bugging me about the three minutes I am taking is equally inconsiderate. Surprisingly, he does not agree.
He continues that they have tables and really with all these people taking all this time it's really very rude, as well as un-pragmatic.
I tell him that I personally am not willing to stick my wet clothes on a random table, but that I am sorry if he feels the now five minutes I took was too long. I also suggest that it might have been faster if he had not been bugging me the entire time. Again, he does not agree.
So, he dumps his stuff in the newly vacated washer and as I am leaving he goes to load up his card and discovers the machine is out of order.
I do think I deserve major points for not asking if it would have been pragmatic for him to load up his card before he dumped his stuff into three separate washers.