Laundry Night Is No Longer Date Night

Back in "the day," Eric and I enjoyed a certain activity each Friday or Saturday night -- laundry. He worked night shift at that time, and those were his nights he was off. So, before we had a washer and dryer in our apartment (when we lived in a one bedroom apartment in my university's family housing), we would save up all of our laundry for a week, get a roll of quarters, and pick up dinner to eat at the laundromat.

I can still picture the laundromat just as it looked then (I don't even think it is there anymore), and can remember generally where we would sit. We would eat and chit chat as all of our clothes/towels/etc for the week washes and dried, all at the same time. It is a marvel for me to think now that we only took up about four or five machines at a time for each week (or sometimes two weeks!), and that was even with Eric having work clothes and regular clothes.

We called it our date night.

We stopped having that date night when we moved in to our two bedroom apartment in family housing, since it had a washer and dryer. It certainly was more convenient (especially with a baby on the way), but it did take the fun out of laundry night, since it did't just happen on one big night anymore.

And, of course, as any mother of several children can attest to, the very thought, now, of letting the laundry go a whole week without doing it is down right frightening. Laundry is now a never ending battle. The minute the basket is empty, it is filled again -- often even before the loads in the washer and dryer are done.

Darn it...it sometimes makes me more than a little nostalgic for our old date nights. (Or, perhaps just a jumbo sized washer and dryer are in order!)