Monday, September 14

I have to take a moment to express my love and appreciation for the ladies of Lan's Lucky Laundry on 4th Avenue, who have made my life so much easier by offering quick and affordable laundry services that keep me from having to do my least favorite thing in the world - waste any part of my weekend at the laundrymat. Today I dropped a huge cumbersome bag of laundry off there at 9am and picked it up on my way home from work at 6:30. I never understand how they do it, but in that time our laundry was transformed from a bulky oversized bundle about to burst out of the laundry bag into a neat compact little brick of clean clothes. And that only set me back $9, for two weeks worth of laundry. I love it. I also love that they let me bring Winnie in to pick up and drop off and they always pet her and say "She looks like an old lady!" I've also seen the ladies walking home at the end of the day a few times when I've been out running or walking and they always stop to say hi and pet Winnie. Now that feels like a neighborhood.

A man who stopped on the street tonight to pet Winnie made a completely incomprehensible comment that is going to ping around in my brain until it gives me an aneurysm. I'm trying to remember it verbatim: "You know, I really just don't like the young people these days, with the attitude and everybody's obsessed with their image, but when you get rid of all that, animals are just so sweet. I really love them." Umm.... Maybe he was drunk. Or crazy. He was wearing sweatpants and didn't look like he was just coming from the gym so that should have been a warning sign.

Other highlights from our evening walk included not one but TWO basset hounds, an encounter with the Haifa Deli cat on Flatbush (who was defiantly curled up in an eggie in the middle of the sidewalk), and Winnie catching the scent of a squirrel and somehow working her entire front torso in between the bars in front of someone's brownstone trying to get it. She's obsessed.

I'm looking forward to a quiet night at home with a big salad (including AMAZING grape tomatoes from the farmer's market - I don't know how much longer they will have them but I'm trying to eat enough of them so that I won't miss them when they go out of season) and leftovers from the cheapest and most delicious Polish meal ever last night. Bring on the goulash!