⭐ laundry day and errand hangs
Today is laundry day. I don't like doing laundry, because it's time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially when you don't have in-unit washer and dryer. I have to haul my hamper full of clothes to the laundromat, exchange my bills for quarters, sift through the quarters for the ones I want to keep, load the washer, wash my clothes for half an hour, move them to a dryer, dry them for an hour and a half, haul them back, and then separate and fold them. If I start as soon as I get off work the whole process is usually done by 8, which strikes me as an awful way to spend an evening.
One thing I will say I have found enjoyable about doing my laundry at a coin laundromat is that it's reawakened my dormant childhood obsession with state quarters. I remember buying a trifold coin sleeve to hold all my state quarters, and even now a box of a few pounds of state (and other special edition) quarters, half dollars, and gold dollar coins (remember when those were everywhere?) sits in my room, probably worth more than a hundred dollars.
Apparently many new quarters have been released in the fifteen plus years since I've paid attention to them. The ones I've seen the most are the ones from the American Women Quarters Program and the America the Beautiful Quarters Program. It's really neat to marvel at all these new designs and indulge my inner child, but the side effect of this is that for every five dollars I spend at the change machine in the laundromat, I only get twelve or so quarters to use for laundry (the rest jingle loudly and weigh my pockets down as I squirrel them away for my collection).
Doing my own chores in the city has helped me reevaluate my opinion of acts of service as a love language. I've never thought of folding clothes or washing dishes with someone else as a particularly fulfilling activity, but the more tired I get of doing them the more I appreciate receiving help in these tasks.
Honestly I'm surprised it's taken me this long to come around, since I love errand hangs:
The errand hang - where you hit your homie up to accompany you while you tend to the tasks that come with adulting - the grocery run, getting a pair of pants tailored, helping you pick a new bedframe, etc. The errand hang dismisses the usual setting of a bar or a lunch. It waves off the expected script of “give me the summarized updates on your life and then I’ll give you the sum on mine.”
Instead, the errand hang dances in the sweet vulnerability that comes from the everyday. Errand hangs sing: “ok I’m a human and you’re a human and we’re going to take an intimate walk through this seemingly ordinary part of my life, but if you look closely, this moment will reveal something delightfully specific and illuminating to what makes me - me, and I want to share that with you because quite frankly - I just like your company, and even in the silence (sometimes especially in the silence) it makes me feel somewhere between warm and content to have you here beside me.”
I might actually even prefer errand hangs to non-errand hangs, since they take a lot of the pressure off of choosing an activity or a place to go. They're low-budget, and you often get just as much quality time to spend with your friend without the guilt of wasting anyone's time. I have one planned for this weekend, actually—I'm helping one of my best friends from high school clean her apartment after her subletter moves out. She felt a bit sheepish about letting me help her, but I don't mind; what's there not to like about helping a friend out and catching up while you do it?
thank you for reading; write to me at yourstiramisu 🐌 proton dot me