So Yesterday I Was Fighting With This Washing Machine...

...and I didn't get my TCT posted. No worries--I have a subject in mind, but I just need to carve out some time to polish it up nice and pretty and actually take the derned picture of it. Nothing like waiting to the last minute, only to have drama meet you at the door.

Basically, the washing machine at the laundromat didn't finish its cycle, so I had to call the owner to report the problem (because there was undrained water, and the machine wouldn't let me open the door). However, when I called, no one picked up the phone, and a recording informed me that the person's voice mailbox was full, so I couldn't leave a message either. Fabuloso.

Oh yes, and this was AFTER I'd picked up the other laundry.

Here's the deal, Marguerite generally puts the laundry to wash over her lunch hour, then comes home to eat, then goes back to work. I, then, pick up the clothes and take them home to start drying them. But yesterday, I had plans to meet SC for a late pizza lunch at about 2:45 or 3:00, so I intended to grab the laundry, throw it in my car, and then head over to meet her.

But I wasn't taking into consideration the "broken" machine, or the mouse.

I didn't really have time to call the guy right then and there, so I reasoned that if I couldn't open the machine, then it shouldn't matter if I left the clothes until after our meal because it was unlikely that anyone would be able to steal them. I grabbed the other laundry, threw it in my car, and headed out of the parking lot. I just turned my radio on to classic rock, when I saw something of a rodent nature scurry out from under my passenger seat and up to... I wasn't sure where. This caught me off guard and made me swerve a tad while making my left-hand turn. Then, I frozen pizza truck nearly ran a stop sign and crashed into my car immediately thereafter. Which made me swerve for real this time, and almost into the path of another car coming towards me. I didn't realize picking up the wash was such a dangerous task.

I really didn't want the mouse to run up my leg (I was, of course, wearing flare jeans), so I debated about even meeting SC. I decided that since she'd been waiting on me already, that maybe I should take one for the team and go meet her. During the 10 minute drive, the mouse never resurfaced. I assume it's living somewhere in my glove compartment, as I've noticed just recently that my car has a lot of open spaces in it. This makes me wonder if its previous owner(s) ripped off some pieces of something, because these holes are machine-cut, like there had, at one time, been something that was supposed to fit in them. Well, I see now, that they're the perfect size for mice to get in through.

So after pizza, I told SC that I needed to go back to the laundry for the towels. She's already dealt with this problem with me before, and since she took pity on me for the mouse situation, agreed to take me into the laundromat after I dropped my car off at my house. She wanted to go to the library anyway.

This takes us back to the place where I called the owner who didn't answer and for whom I could not leave a message. I went to the library with SC. I even checked out a book and two movies. But I needed a library card made. This took some time. The library started a new card system, and since I hadn't used the local library during the six years I was in college, I had to get a new one.

Afterward, SC took me BACK to the laundromat, where I was actually able to get ahold of the owner. He showed up in a matter of minutes, and claimed that it was our fault that the washer didn't work properly. I really don't know who was at fault, but I just wanted to get the heck out of there. He said it would take about an hour, so SC and I went to the local dollar store to kill time. I ended up buying more than I'd intended, but nothing major.

Finally, I came home at around 7:00 P.M. and figured that the way my day had been going, I'd just go to my room and read my new library book. I hope to get my violet picture posted sometime this afternoon (as I'm meeting my grandmother for lunch shortly).

And yeah, I really wish we had a new washer.

Random Today Stuff...

I woke up at 7:00 this morning. That's pretty good, I suppose, considering that I went to bed around midnight and couldn't sleep well due to my sinus congestion. I would have gotten up to take a Benadryl or something, but I keep having these crazy flashbacks to a time when I took too much Benadryl and The Wall (the Pink Floyd album) actually started making sense to me. This time I opted to just massage my forehead and hope for the best. Apparently, I slept enough because, though I was a little groggy at 7:00, I was quite ready to actually get out of bed by 8:00 instead of falling back asleep.

Since I didn't have to go to work today, I decided to continue my movie review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (coming soon, I hope, to a blog near you (A.K.A. this one)). Then, I decided that since I hadn't read the short story of the same name, I wasn't quite ready to review the movie. So yeah, I read the story. I also dried three loads of laundry (one of the cats, Snugs, got in the basement during the laundry-drying, and my dad had to get her out). Then, during another episode of laundry-drying, I heard a phantom door-opening and yelled for the cats to all stay upstairs. It wouldn't have been such a major catastrophy had the basement not been housing a poinsettia. Anyway, my yelling must have discouraged whatever criminal was trying to sneak into the basement. As I headed back towards the stairs, the door was wide open, and I saw a very guilty-looking Abby staring at me.

In other news, I've been crocheting a doily for my cousin for her wedding. Perhaps I'll take a photo and post on here when it's done.