Humbled...

Recently my little family all was hit by the flu bug. It was nasty stuff and I will leave the details in the past because they are just too horrific to relive, and I don't want any of my readers sitting down to check the Brown Eyed Girl's blog with a yummy sandwich and being totally grossed out. Just know this, it was a bad deal here at our house. Day two of the flu and I was downstairs trying to keep the yucky laundry going when I realized that the clothes I put in the dryer should not be dry yet, however the dryer was not running. I push the button again, and nothing. I pull the plug out and replace it in the socket, and still no power surges to the mighty machine. Immediately expletives are flying around in my brain along with the "why me's", "why now", and your typical, "this cannot be happening!!!!" sort of thoughts. I trudge up the stairs (in the bent over position because it still hurts to stand up right from my night of bowing to the porcelain Gods). As my poor husband lies under 2 blankets trying desperately to get some rest I relay the bad news. At this point I have no choice. You don't leave flu laundry hanging around so I discard by comfy clothes and attempt to make myself look semi-presentable to go out into the world. Where am I headed....the laundry mat. Words cannot explain how much I hate the laundry mat, but you do what you gotta do right? After college I had hoped to put my public laundry days behind me. So with what felt like 100 pounds of wet laundry and 2 extra baskets of dry I head off to the laundry mat. After making what felt like 20 trips back and forth to the car I finally settle in. Immediately I take stock of the place and plan my attack. The goal: get in and out of here as quickly as possible at any cost. No lie, if they had a woman standing there with a coin slot in her forehead to do this for me I would gladly pay $100 to have it done and come back later. Alas, the coin operated woman was nowhere to be found, so I move on. Here's where we stop a moment. I want you to understand the surroundings. If you ever want a strong dose of humble, go to a small town laundry mat. I'm not talking a large metro area one located in a strip mall next to a Starbucks with Wi-fi, 10 televisions, debit card slots in the machines, and free newspapers to read while you wait. No, no...I'm talking coin operated only, harvest gold Speed Queens from the 70's, a quarter inch of lint residue on everything, angry looks from tired people, and all this while a fuzzy radio plays Neil Diamond on some radio station from elevator music hell! That's a real laundry mat kids and if you haven't experienced it I suggest you stop in for an hour if you really want to put your finger on the pulse of America. At any rate I load a small fortune in quarters in the washers and dryers and am on my way to cleaner clothes. This is the point at which I have time to sit down at the old card table set up in the corner and try to find something to do to pass the next 2 hours because, as the sign clearly says, DO NOT leave laundry unattended. I organize my purse first, dink with my cell phone, and then realize that I might as well do a little good old fashioned people watching. This is the point I realize that I am the pink elephant in the room. Even I hated me at that moment. While the rest of these folks are clearly performing a weekly ritual of spending what little money they have to clean their clothes in breezes this annoying brown eyed girl with her clicky heeled shoes, her obnoxious handbag, texting on her cell phone, and all with a chip on her shoulder because for 2 hours of her life she has to be inconvenienced. Needless to say, I put the cell phone in my pocket on silent, grabbed the auto trader magazine off the old card table, and tried to exercise a little more humility. There were lots of folks in there, and all of them felt just like me, they hated it but these people were here because it was their only option, not because it would take 2 days for the dryer guy from Sears to show up. I wouldn't be back, but they certainly would. I'm going to focus on one sweet little trio I observed that made me feel the most humbled during this experience. There was a woman, probably mid-forties, her daughter who was maybe 15, and a little boy about my sons age. At first I make the assumption that this woman has two kids until the woman told this adorable little boy to take a quarter to mommy to put in the dryer. They were a well oiled machine these three, mom handled the washers and folding, the daughter kept checking the dryers and tossing clothes between dryers for the most effective use of the quarter, and the little boy happily toddled around all to pleased to push a button for his mommy or bring a quarter. The whole time they smiled, they laughed, and they joked. Their positive nature was infectious and before I knew it I was smiling too, sick as a dog, but smiling...happy...and humbled. This post was a little on the rambly side today, but it just felt like a story I needed to share. All in all I hope what you take away from this is to work hard to extract the joy from any situation, count your blessings, and be thankful for everything you have in your life that isn't coin operated.