My mother says that when I was a child she used to have to go through my pockets before doing the laundry to find the rocks I’d secreted there and forgotten about. It doesn’t surprise me, kids do all kinds of silly things and on our recent family vacation we followed my nephew around from pillar to post (or garden to flowerpot, if you will) in his quest to collect enough rocks to build a new country, perhaps to later call nephewlandia.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, de tal palo, tal astilla (A stick like that gives rise to a splinter that’s the same), etc. You can’t change a zebra’s stripes. I’m not talking about my nephew’s propensity to stick things in his pockets. Unfortunately, I’m talking about my own tendency to launder items that were never meant to go through the spin cycle.
I’ve washed lip balm on several occasions. This works out pretty much fine so long as it doesn’t go through the dryer (which it doesn’t here, as I don’t have one). Though there was the great blackberry lipgloss explosion of 2007 in Ushuaia that left a bunch of my clothes speckled in blackberry, and caused the great Columbia zip-off pants disposal, along with a lot of “what happened to you?” questions when I wore the similiarly stained shirt, looking like I’d participated in some kind of sticky pink food fight. Which I pretty much had.
Other victims of the wash include credit cards, which by the way, get round and bendy if you let them go through the dryer, and the numbers flatten a little, but they still work. I also managed to send my passport through the washing machine once, and am happy to report it stayed fully functional, if a little softer and maybe a touch frayed around the edges.
Last week’s catastrophe (please say with French accent, sounds much better) was the sending of 1/2 a roll of toilet paper through the wash. You think a stray tissue makes a mess!? Quelle surprise! It was riotously bad. It’s because my tp holder is blocked by my washing machine, so the tp migrates around a little bit. Somehow it ended up on the floor and when I was mopping I tossed it in the laundry basket for safekeeping. Dummkopf! (this in German) Lesson learned: no bathroom floor mopping. Also, toilet paper? very clean. Clothes? not so much.
Today’s laundry debacle is actually a gear report. The watch portion of my Polar f6 heart rate monitor took a dip in the whirlpool today, and by all accounts seems to be fine. In truth it was probably the most exciting thing that will happen to the watch today, as I don’t get the feeling that being on my sweaty wrist during a spinning class during which I sing along in both English and Spanish is much of a thrill.
Thanks mamaj for the rock anecdote. I’m afraid to say this seems to be a lifelong affliction with the stuff in the washing machine. Good news? My rock collection now has a home, and they seldom go through the wash.
What have you washed lately?
Whoooo! I loved all your different languages in this post. I would like to point out that I was able to pronounce all words in appropriate accents, and understood them all as well. Well rounded I am.
I myself have sent one or two chapstick through the wash. Luckily, most have not made it to the dryer.
Also, in response to a long ago left comment on my blog, I don’t think there is a way to make only certain posts on my blog private. I think it’s all or nothing. Hopefully, sooner or later, I can take the privacy off. I just have to wait until I either change schools, or, let enough time pass to make sure that no one around here would be interested in reading my blog- and then be VERY careful about what I write about. In a way, it’s easier to just keep it private. 🙂
Yikes…I’m imagining the half of a roll of TP, and it’s not a pretty sight. I’ve sent chapstick through the washer and dryer (!), tissues, money. But never anything as exciting as a passport. Those things are built to last, aren’t they?
“Other victims of the wash include credit cards, which by the way, get round and bendy if you let them go through the dryer, and the numbers flatten a little, but they still work.”
I can’t stop laughing with that part =D
I put money through the washer fairly often (BTW, when I was a kid I believed this is what people meant by “lavado de dinero”), and I once managed to forget my ID Card in my jeans and put it through the washer and dryer. I am sorry to say the darned thing didn’t fare quite as well as credit cards seem to do, and I had to endure the joys of our Registro Civil (which I know you’re familiar with) that week.
Greetings!
really? ID card didn’t like the dryer? What’s wrong with it? Mine has a kink in the middle where I sat on it wrong, but unless it breaks, I won’t be getting a new one for a while. Glad you liked my description of the credit card’s new shape. And I put money in the machine more often than not, and also believed that might be what “money laundering” was when I was a kid. Great minds think alike, Andrea! Thanks for popping in!
It was the old ID Card, it was completely different from the one that we have nowadays. Little more than a laminated piece of cardboard, I’d say. The ink turned the thing pinkish, the edges split, it was a mess. I still have it around somewhere, I should scan it for posterity xD
ah yes, I know what the old one looks like. It was still in circulation when I first got here (2004), though I got the new one straight away. I can see how that would not have fared well in the washer or dryer. Plus it was so big!