Clean

For most of my life, I've had to take my laundry somewhere to a pay machine. In the dorms, I was at least lucky enough to have it in the basement. I could then study or watch TV or play video games until it was done. In Rochester, it was in the basement too and I didn't have to pay so that was kind of nice. But I shared machines with other tenants, so it was still a bit of a hassle. Bangkok was the best because I made enough money to have my laundry done and they usually did a nice job and packed each individual piece of clean underwear in a plastic bag which was a little over the top (like everything about the place I stayed in there).

Laundry always sucked in New York. I'd wait to the last minute and then I'd have so much stuff I could barely walk to the laundermat even if it was on the same block. I always got in fights with the staff because I'd try to get there at the last possible moment to do it and they'd want to close as soon as possible.

And like with many things, Va1larta has pushed me over the edge. It's more expensive to do laundry here than eNYC ($2 per wash and $2 per dry). Forget about getting it done. Besides being expensive, they often lose your things or destroy them. Finally I just couldn't take it anymore, and yesterday, after months of on and off again research, I went to the appliance shop in the mall and put down $3998 pesos in cash (about $375) and bought my very first washing machine.

They told me it would be delivered in the morning, between 10am and 2pm. I love that in Mexico, morning is considered until 2pm -- my kind of country! The guys came at 10:45. They charged me an extra 200 pesos for installation but I didn't even care!


I sat and stared at it a lot today. Definitely some new vocabulary words. I washed 4 loads and with each one I'd go check on it, listen to the sounds it was making, check on the water level and temperture, wipe off any stray soap. The lights in the whole apartment flicker with each wash cycle, but it only makes me smile (and realize I can never try to use the space heater or microwave when I wash and probably should hold off on the coffee maker and blender too lest I blow a fuse...I mean that literally because my apartment, as you might remember from a previous blog, still has fuses, not circuit breakers that are easily reset.). What once aggravated me is now a pleasure. And something I can control...unlike something else that is about to happen! Ah, my own washing machine in the comfort of my own (rented) home. Now that's something I can be happy to have acquired as an almost 40 year old adult.

Next step: my very first car.