October 13th, you saw me carry laundry

I zoomed into the sunset from the bathroom

Dear October,

So just now my friend and I were trying to get our laundry done. Before I go on about that, let me name the different sections of our dorms. There are four main ones in the building/structure/area that contains the Caf, and we shall call them North, Soot, Eats, and Ham. I live in the North Hall.

Soot Hall is famous for its air conditioning (because it's the only section of us 4 that has it) and it has a curving hallway on its first two floors. North Hall is unfortunately, the highest in elevation compared to all the other Halls, and I happen to live on the highest floor in North Hall, so everyone on my floor has to travel more than anyone else in the dorm area to get to their rooms. We try to feel better about it by telling each other that at least we're getting a lot of exercise.

All the halls are connected to each other, mostly. For instance, if you walk in the correct direction on the correct floor in North Hall, you can get to Eats Hall. And if you head uhh north(?) from the third floor of North Hall, you enter a breezy passageway that goes into Ham. Soot is the one that's a bit isolated from everyone else :( Theirs is the only one with an entrance into their hall after the very first flight of steps. Everyone else has entrances on either the next outdoor "floor"/level or the one after that. But they have air conditioning and they're right in front of the entrance to the dorms, so when carrying things they don't need to go up another 1-2-3-4 outdoor stairways to just get to the entrance of North Hall. I guess it all evens out.

So my friend (her name will be Pugs) and I brought our laundry down to the floor with a laundry room in North. We put all our clothes in the washers and I swipe my card--and the little card swiping machine doesn't work! It just has the same display on. I swipe it slowly and then my friend swipes hers too, but it doesn't work. So we put our laundry back in our bags, go up some stairs, and get into Ham. We enter their 2nd floor laundry room and try our cards and it works, but then we find that 2 of the 3 not-currently-washing washing machines have clothes in them. :( So we talk for a while and then this guy comes in to get his clothes and says 'oh yeah I kept checking back but those machines have been left full for a while'. So we take all the clothes out and pile them on the table that people usually put other people's clothes if they've been in the washer for too long. We feel bad, but then we put our clothes in and swipe and yay everything is good!

I forgot to mention, Ham has pretty much the most facilities of all of us. They have a very nice lounge by the entrance, which includes some pool and ping pong tables and maybe foosball (can't remember). They have the typical large tv hanging on the wall and new carpets and couches. Then right next to that is the kitchen, and outside the kitchen is a little reading area by the glass walls. It's very small, but at least there are couches and tables and its cute. Next to that, there's also the sole computer lab in the dorms. Then, if you go up a few floors, there's the sole DDR machine. There's also one of the "hidden" old pianos up there and a foosball table. So Pugs and I go up and play DDR as we wait for our laundry to dry. Unfortunately the front and back of the room are glass, so people from both the second and third level outside can see you play DDR. Also, the room is in the middle of this connection between the Caf and Ham, so occasionally people pass by behind you. So it's a little weird, but for some reason nobody really cares, and I don't either!

Beep beep alarm, so we go back to get our laundry. Then we find that another dryer has broken (there was one that was already not working before) so now only one dryer works, and there's someone in line for that dryer. So we hear about this laundry room on the ground floor of Ham, and so we sadly put our somewhat damp clothes into our bags and go down and yay there are two dryers! We hooray but then look at this girl standing next to one of the to dryers and Pugs asks if she's going to use it and she says yes, her boyfriend is just getting something so she's kind of holding it for him. So then Pugs says that I can use the dryer first, and then I say that maybe we could just both go to the Soot laundry room, which our friend Cat said always worked (we made it so complicated lol) and then Pugs says I could just dry my clothes here and she'll go to South, and then I say that I'll come with her in that case because I felt bad about taking it first (oh laundry etiquette). So that's what happens. She lugs her laundry to Soot and then I carry it around the stairs in Soot until we get to the Soot laundry room, which is on the ground floor (which has nothing except a laundry room...). It's kind of creepy, all alone and with pipes creeping around and pretty blue paint that turns into tile that turns into something else, but there are plenty of open machines (no one wants to trek all the way to Soot if they don't live in Soot). Yay unload.

Back to DDR! I am steadily improving! Whilst before I always got D's I finally got a few C's and then once I got a B and I was so happy that it was sad because well it was DDR and also it was for a B. We were cheering whenever one of us got a C, and we were playing in the easiest mode possible that still gives you grades. So we're terrible at DDR but just ok enough that we hit enough arrows for it to be fun!

Before all this I went to the nature lab to finish my drawing homework, and I chatted about drawing and classes and majors and things with an acquaintance-friend, Ming, while drawing! Meanwhile she was setting up a very complicated self portrait, which was interesting. Later I had to move downstairs to set up a skeleton and finish that with the some of my drawing classmates.  I also talked to my parents over the phone today, which was something I missed doing, so that was nice.

Thanks for the perfectly chilly night (so nice after DDR and laundry hiking),
Indigo

song of the day: Home by Gabrielle Aplin (!!!)