Cleveland is My Valentine

This morning I went, finally, to the laundromat. First I stopped at Marc's to buy some stuff for tomorrow. And yes, Marc's is the most unromantic place to get groceries for Valentine's Day, but when it's sweetened condensed milk, who gives a shit? Also I picked up these Purex 3 in 1 Laundry sheets, and they are awesome. If anyone from Purex would like to give me money to elaborate on that, email me.

So then I trucked my garbage bags of bedding and dirty underwear into the laundromat, converted my sad little dollars into quarters, and sat down to make my valentines while the machines made noises akin to galloping Chicoteague ponies. Then this guy walked in, who was obviously a regular. He was wearing khakis, a plaid shirt, these dark blue sunglasses, and was carrying his laundry in by hand with no bag. He started talking immediately to the old woman sitting behind the counter, the one who made fun of my lost expression when I had walked in twenty minutes ago. He loudly asked the other guy there, who like me was obeying the "Silencio and Ignore" rule, if there were any large machines left. Then as he was loading his quarters in, he looked at each one and told us what year it was. He had a 1966 one, and told the woman if he had a 1964 one it would be 50% silver.

After his laundry was in, and going, (and leaking water all over the floor but I wasn't going to say anything after all Silencio and Ignore), he asked the woman if she had a microwave. Cause he had something in the car to eat, and hadn't eaten all morning, cause he had been moving stuff, but not moving out just moving stuff around the apartment. She let him use the microwave, after asking if there was anything foil on it. Then he sat in the chair directly across from her desk and started to talk about everything he knew how to do. Fabricate metal. Electrical work. Coins. As I was getting my stuff from the dryers, he had moved onto how all he ever wanted in life was a family and children, and how money didn't mean anything in the end, and what kind of things were important.

And it was sad, because you knew that not only did he not have a family, or children, or a valentine, he didn't have any money either. And the old woman working at the laundromat probably had family, but also had no money. And here was I, with no children or money, but I have a valentine.

Not everybody has everything all the time, so Happy Valentine's Day for whatever you have, love or money or family or just reliable internet access. The internet loves you.