thank you notes (madeleine)(2)
i'm thankful for my laundromat, 'baby girl's bubbles and cleaners.' i'm thankful that that is really its name and that i'm not even lying to you. i'm thankful that it is the kind of place i struggle to actually make myself go to, but that once i do i feel at peace with the world and i always leave in a better mood. i'm thankful that, though this is the way people usually describe going to the gym, i have never found it to be true anywhere but baby girl's. i'm thankful that my roommate hates doing laundry, so i never have to pretend to see if she wants to go with me. i'm thankful that this affords me an oft-needed break. i'm thankful that it is a small and warm. i'm thankful that i can almost always work out a time to go when i know it won't be crowded. i'm thankful that, when there is music on inside, it's always this completely bizarre pandora station that plays r&b remixes of the 'beauty and the beast' soundtrack, and other similar tracks. i'm thankful that there are, in fact, songs similar to an r&b version of 'tale as old as time.' i'm thankful that the only two places to sit are these two very uncomfortable, plastic benches, which prevent me from getting into a position where i can read, so i'm practically forced to do nothing but watch my clothes spin around and around. i'm thankful for the crucial stillness this brings to my brain. i'm thankful for the other people in the laundromat: the women who work there, the kid with a backpack full of clothes, the mom with two enormous carts full of stuff, the guy facetiming incredibly loudly so that everyone learns about his family drama. i'm thankful for the invisible bond between the laundry-doers over our shared jealousy/hatred of the bougie, higher-class specimens coming to drop off bags of laundry for delivery. i'm thankful that i'd never had to use a laundromat before i moved to my apartment, and that it makes me feel like a real new yorker. i'm thankful that my mom can never remember its name and calls it 'bubble babes.' i'm thankful, most of all, that after 1.5 or so hours there my clothes come out clean and dry.
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