"If thou fearest West Nile Virus, thou shall not do thy laundry in the facilities provided by apartment complex." So sayest the Lord.


Each building in our apartment complex has one laundry room. And for the last year, the laundry room in our particular building has been gross.


At first, the ceiling bulged under a giant bubble of water. I know because I poked the ceiling with a stick and the ceiling rippled, the way the mirror in The Matrix ripples when Neo has taken the red pill. It was scary.


After the water finally burst, the ceiling caved in. Right around that time the people who lived directly above the laundry room were evicted, and left behind some nasty surprises. I believe I commented on this sometime last semester, where every single item was thrown onto the lawn in front of our apartment building and every single item was corroded with slime, rust, and mold.


Each laundry room also has 2 washers and 2 dryers. But in ours, one of the washers always has stagnant water, and one of the dryers steals your $1.25 and rolls your stuff around but doesn't actually dry anything. Most of the time, the laundry room itself is filled with so many bugs and mosquitoes, it's just easier to walk another 50 feet to the opposite apartment building and use their laundry room. Except everyone seems to have that idea, and so no matter the time of day, the machines are in perpetual use.


But today, Zappo and I loaded up everything--and I mean everything-- that could possibly be washed. Blankets, dish towels, sheets, pillows, pillow cases, clothes, duffle bags... like I said: everything... anyway, we wanted to pack everything clean. We hadn't done laundry in about a month or so, since we were planning on doing all the laundry the day before we moved anyway, and we went to the laundromat about a mile away.


It would have probably cost us $50-$70 and taken us probably 2 full days to climb up and down stairs and search out washers and dryers around the complex. But we were able to do 8 loads (the BIG stuff too, the 50 lbs. washer kind of loads) and then dry everything in only 3 and a half hours. Not too shabby. And it' only cost us less than $40.


Not to mention the laundromat was pretty darn clean and I felt safe. Whereas around here, I do not feel safe because I'm always cat-called at when I'm carrying my laundry, and it just seems too easy for someone to kidnap me with all the blind corners and stuff.


I'll be so happy to leave.


Oh yeah. That's tomorrow.


I'm moving tomorrow.


Woohoo!


So that means I won't be around for about a week as I drive 2682 miles across the country.


I tried to sell stuff today, but the flea market was closed. And by the time I got home, it was too late to set up anywhere else. Besides, the only things I have that I think anyone would actually buy are my clothes and shoes. So I'm bringing those with me, and I'm going to either sell them on eBay or in consignment shops around Hollywood.


I'm a little scared about leaving tomorrow. But also excited. But also nervous. At least I'm going to be near my family again. And what's even cooler? I have a couple friends in the area already! My old friend Kelly, who was also displaced on the wrong side of the country, was born and raised in California. We had so much fun working together! But then two years ago, she went back home and I went back to school and we haven't really talked. But I e-mailed her and she lives about a half hour away from where I'm going to be moving! Also, I have a new friend Brian, who is helping in the effort of keeping me calm in my job search. My best friend since 5th grade, Monica (her name isn't really Monica, but she reminds me of Monica on Friends) is also in California. But she's in the wrong part of California. She's in Sacramento right now. But she and her husband are looking to buy a house, and I'm trying to convince them to move closer to me. But property prices are probably out of a question for that. But still, it's closer than we've been geographically in four years. Thanks be to College.


Well. Wish us luck in our journey!


See ya in a week.



You know you love me,

Samantha Stark

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