An afternoon at the laundromat

I did something very embarrassing today. I also made a "friend." The two are unrelated except that they happened all within the same hour.

First the friend. I took Desmond to the laundromat to wash the humongous comforter that Peter and I use in the winter. It was way overdue for a wash. The laundromat near our house has a lot of day labors. A lot. I got pretty comfortable with handling the cultural differences between me (read: Southern girl) and Latino men when we lived in Shirlington and I was job hunting. So when a guy named Fernando approached me in the laundromat and struck up a conversation, I found it amusing, not intimdating. Even with his limited English we quickly established that I was VERY happily married. After that we spent about 30 minutes chatting. I helped him practice his English, he made Desmond laugh with funny faces, and we were all content. I wonder why he stayed to talk. He seemed lonely. All of his family is in Hondorous. His English wasn't great. I invited him to my church's ESL program. It reminded me how fortunate I am not to be alone.

Now the embarrassing. While the comforter was washing, I walked with Desmond to McDonalds to get an ice cream cone. When we got back, I went to put the comforter in the dryer and realized I didn't have my keys! I went out to the car and found my keys sitting in the door lock. They had been there for over 45 minutes!! What a stupid thing to do! And yet, despite all the day labors hanging out around my car and despite the fact that I know they watched me walk off to McDonalds, no one touched them or the car. No one.

I definitely got lucky, but I was also encouraged.


Don't worry, I'll stop my yammering and start posting more pictures of Desmond one of these days. :-)