Laundress Gumshoe

I highly recommend a little marital aide that is significantly cheaper than counseling: getting your dirty clothes professionally laundered. (What did you think I was going to say?) In Boston, it hasn’t been much more expensive than the crazy prices in our basement--$4.75 to wash and dry a single load--ouch! The professional wash-and-fold is a bit of a splurge from hauling stuff down the street to the cheaper coin laundromat, but like I said, when only one spouse ends up doing this chore, the household suffers. Anyway, I have gotten way off track…

Scott and I love our local laundress. She is quite chatty and gives out Dum Dum lollipops. When we first started going there, she asked Scott what kind of dogs we had. He looked a little surprised and wondered if she recognized him at the dog park or something. Then, of course, she indicated that it was clear from our hairy pile of laundry that we either have dogs or a much bigger problem. Then, this last week (a year and a half of laundry later), when Scott came to pick up the laundry, she gave him a hearty congratulations. She of course had gotten the first batch of dirty laundry that included my new maternity clothes. What a funny thing to piece together information from clothes. (Paranoid Molly hopes her keen senses did not detect any of our figurative dirty laundry to boot--need to check all the pockets next time.) When I finally stopped by to get our last batch before the move, she had all sorts of advice about stretch marks and sleeping--very useful stuff. And she gave me a lollipop. I will miss her, even though I will soon have my very own washer and dryer!!!

[Image from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Get_lautrec_1889_the_laundress.jpg]