Amateur -- Part One

I have found myself in two situations lately where I was a hopeless amateur, and it showed.

The first situation found me on a snowy day in Maryland. We were staying in the hotel and the only washer in the whole hotel was broke. It was time to visit the laundermat.

Even in my college days I did not go to laundermats. I either went to the laundry in the basement or to my sister's house. Being poor, really poor, it was almost always to my sister's home.

So I walked into this situation alone and confused. They had washers of all sizes! Do I go large? Medium? Normal? And the prices!! Did they really want $4 for a large washer?? Didn't they know that in the dorms, in the 90s, it was only 75 cents?

I made it through the washing process and headed for the dryers. All of the dryers were set to Medium heat, and I assumed that this was because hot was super hot -- shrink your clothes hot. So I kept it on Medium and waited the appointed time. The buzzer rang, I opened the dryer door, and my clothes were still wet! Suspicious, I walked down the aisle to see what settings the pros were using. Yep, all were set to high.

Sighing, I inserted more money and turned the knob to high. I could just imagine what the pros were thinking as I struggled through this process. "Sad, amateur. Medium! Hah!"