Misacapades of Clean Underwear

One must never be traveling down life’s highway with a suitcase full of dirty underwear - its just one of those universal laws that must not be broken.

Last night saw me ensconced in the Marriott at Santa Clara California.  So many hotels only offer the highly priced “send out” option that sees a load of washing costing more than the price to buy it new.  So the gift of an in-house guest laundry where you can soothe your wash day blues for $2 was beckoning.  So off I choofed to the gift shop to get soap powder and quarters for the machines.  

I have attended three conferences at this hotel and they are really good at making it easy for the masses to get things in a hurry.  Their pricing reflects that.  Small items are rounded off to a dollar incl tax, meaning the transaction happens quickly in the lunch line.  So if you want a banana - its a dollar - you want a yoghurt - its a dollar - you want a bag of crisps, yep its a dollar.  So I have a thing in my head that says most small things at this Marriott are a dollar .. because pretty much they are!  

I got this great laundry bag in Aspen many
years ago - its one of the things that
ALWAYS travels with me

So down I went to the lobby with three $1 notes in hand only to find that the soap powder was $1.35 - what the?  This kind of threw a spanner in the workings of my brain because the washer and dryer, funnily enough were one dollar a piece so I needed 8 quarters, but now I’ve only got 6.  But I’d looked in my purse before hitting the lift and I could see several quarters lurking in the bottom, so I figured I didn’t need to come back.  

So I went back to my room and took ALL my dirty clothes off and donned “big red” - my big ole fluffy red comfort dressing gown, not elegant, but is like being wrapped in a hug.  I wandered down to the laundry, put my load of washing in, inserted four shiny quarters and got back to my room without anyone seeing me.

Then it was time to go back and put the now clean, but wet clothes in the dryer.

Now if you’ve done your maths, I have two quarters (.25c) left from the gift shop and I’ll need the two other quarters I THOUGHT I had in my purse.  Half correct - I had one quarter and one nickel!  They look very similar in the bottom of a change purse - DAM!

So now I’m standing in my room, butt naked under the big dressing gown looking less than glamorous, all my clothes now wet in the washing machine and I’m one quarter short.

I turned my bags upside down seeking another quarter but alas, not one to be found.

The thought of wandering through the plush lobby in “big red” to get more change didn’t inspire.

So I phoned up guest services to see if they would bring me up a quarter.  After a long discussion ....... imagine my strong Australian accent trying to relay this to the young woman on the other end line, who kept rationally telling me I had to come to the desk and get change.  

Finally , after some negotiation and a slight hissy fit I convinced her that the lobby was probably not a place for big red to make its catwalk debut and a lovely lady from housekeeping bought me up a quarter to trade for my nickel and two dimes.

My life looks awfully exotic to so many but it took over an hour to get that load of laundry in the dryer - its the small every day things on the road that drive you the most nuts!