Laundry Day

I do my laundry once a week, except for when I have other bigger stuff to do, like blankets and jackets.  Then I do it twice a week, usually two days in a row.  I have a phobia of the soap getting stuck or soaked into my blankets, so I usually wash my blankets twice; twice through the rinse cycle.  I have gotten in the habit of doing my laundry late at night, when no one else is there. It’s kind of magical but also annoying at the same time.  The ritual of doing laundry makes me feel like I am kind of out of control with things.  What happens if a machine I try to use is broken?  What happens if the water becomes stagnant and dirty?  What if some psychopath comes in the laundry room at the same time that I am putting some of my clothes away and puts something in the laundry machine so that there is a blotchy white spot on my quilt that I don’t notice until I make my bed later? 

One time I was prepping to do my laundry and I walked in the laundry room to find a laundry room floor completely coated with splotches of water over the green tile floor.  I remember feeling the sense of someone giving a warning as soon as I saw it, as if to threaten me in some way.  The best my imagination can come up with is that the person who did this was mad about his girlfriend dying at an early age.  When I asked maintenance, a maintenance guy said that someone had just opened the washing machine so that the water had fallen on the floor, but I think it was more than that.  Someone was seeking revenge.  Someone was angry.  Someone had been able to get past the gated door that only people who live in the building are supposed to be able to get past.  What could one have possibly said to the (probably scared by that time) people at the front desk for them to be able to come in?  One time I saw a guy, short and kind of scruffy looking, smelling strongly of marijuana, walking quickly through the gated doors.  I think that was the first time I saw him, the second being one night when I was doing laundry.  He had beady, energetic eyes, and he had occupied two or three washing machines which that I was hoping would open soon so that I could use them.  When he walked in the room, I didn’t feel threatened until I figured out that he was the guy who had splattered water all over the floor.  I figured it out after he left, but in the meantime, we had a pleasant conversation in which I felt like I learned he was a very pleasant person.  I saw that there were streaks of laundry detergent over the lids of the washing machines, and I made a comment to him (a conversation starter) in which I said that I hated it when people left soap all over the washing machines, as it was at that moment.  He said that that was his fault and that he was sorry for that, and it was not until then that I realized he was the one who had gone crazy and soaked the floor.  Did he do it for some reason that involved me, I wonder?  Did he think I had said something bad about him or someone important to him?  Who could have said such a thing to him? 

In the meantime, in those few moments when the culprit was in the room, I noticed he had an expensive looking (wool?) sweater among his laundry, an off-white Banana Republic one that he stretched out, before he left, over a laundry basket so that it would dry.  I told him that you should never wash wool, and then he said something in response (can’t remember exact words) so that he either went through with not putting it in the dryer, or so that he decided not to at the last moment. 

That man, a short, skater- boyish (kind of) male, kind of rocked my world for a few moments until after he left, when I realized that he was the crazy person who had something on his mind, as to go and do something like that.  This goes to show that you never really know a person, that you can never really determine what a person is capable of.  I would like to know what was on his mind- was this a guy who was going under the identity of another?  The thought crossed my mind, as sometimes this is what crazy people do.  I didn’t feel in danger, but I did feel kind of taken a-back and heartbroken, that I could feel so happy to be around a person who I later realized was so crazy.  Should I have taken his Banana Republic sweater?  I decided not to, because I had better things on my mind.