MONDAY BLUES

I know I haven’t posted in a while. Put it this way, I was beyond exhausted for the past two weeks due to lack or sleep and major running around. This is my first weekend after many weekends that I got to relax. Well close to relaxing at least. Saturday I was supposed to have a day off but I ended up running errands from 9 am up until 2 pm. They weren’t even my stuff to do. Then Sunday, on my legit day off, I had to go to Target to get a couple of stuff that I needed. On the bright side, I did purchase ten Dannon Light & Fit yogurts for $4.50 at Target! Score for me!

Before I get into story telling, I need you, my readers to send me a story or a question for Spin Cycle Sunday. By you contributing, it means a lot to me and it makes it more interesting for me to write on Sundays! Plus, I love having my readers share their stories or questions with me! My email is Lillaundrygirl@gmail.com.

The Agenda:
(It will be a long post)
- Moshe and Cheapo
- Bar of Soap

Moshe and Cheapo:

Last week on Tuesday, I dropped off three skirts and four table cloths at the catering place. I told Cheapo that I was going to drop off the skirts and pick up the check. See what I did there? I TOLD him I am picking up the check. I did NOT ask him “will you have the check ready?” See I realized that it would be better for me that I tell him I am picking up the check instead of calling him and asking him if it would be ready. After I dropped off the skirts, I walked down to the main office to pick up my check. Surprise, surprise… an employee stated that Cheapo was not in the office. Little did this asshat know I was one step ahead of him… I told the employee “well, I am here to pick up the check and I need that check.” He took out the company checkbook while looking at me… he acted as if the book was taken out of a secret place. I thought “bitch, I have to get to work… work faster” He inquired about the total and I told him “$266”. He reacted with a shocked look on his face. What did the moron do? He called Cheapo… the same Cheapo that wasn’t in the office twenty minutes ago, when I had asked for him. Cheapo comes out with a pissed look on his face. It was really cute, he tried to intimidate me, instead I stood my ground, I snapped my fingers, and I asked for my money.

You see, in the past I used to be a sweet girl to him that would ask him if the check was ready. He lost that privilege a long time ago. Its serious business now bro. He handed me the check and he told me “next time call me and ask me if I am in the office” I told him “How about I just come here and pick up my check? You know what the amount is.”
For sure he owes other people money too. I looked at a table covered with invoices and when I looked over some of them while I was waiting; I noticed some invoices showing “FINAL NOTICE” in big red letters. Sucks for him. I took a picture of it but I need to figure out how to upload pictures to my computer from my phone.

I got a call on Wednesday asking me to pick up more skirting and overlays. The skirts needed to be dropped off on Friday and the overlays needed to be dropped off on Monday morning (today). When I went to pick up the skirting on Wednesday, Moshe was not in his office. His employees took my invoice and pointed me in the right direction as to where I could find the items I needed to pick up. When I was loading my half assed jeep with these bags, Cheapo comes running towards my car. Now, Cheapo is overweight and seeing him run like that was hilarious. I held in my laughter. Picture a penguin waddling and running at the same time. He hands me a check at the amount of $200 and he tells me “I made this lady pay for the skirting since she needed to use them.” He was not kidding… he really made another person pay for us to clean the skirting. What. The. Fuck.??? He asked me to follow him so he can make a copy of the check. While we were waiting for him to make a copy, he tells me “Look, you need to make your prices cheaper for some of this stuff like the overlays. How much do you charge for those to begin with?”… Here is a thought… if you don’t know how much I charge… why would you ask me to make the price cheaper for you???!!! WHY!?!?!? I was always taught to know my facts before I ask for something to become cheaper. I flat out told him “those are the prices.” If he brings it up to me again, I will point out that the box pleat skirts and the table cloths should be charged more. I am pretty sure that will shut him up. Honestly, I am still shocked that he made someone else pay for the skirts… I kid you not, the check was a personal check from TD bank and it was made out to our Laundromat. How low can Cheapo go? If I owned a catering company, I would be more professional about it, like charge extra for the event being catered but not ask the client to pay $200 to clean the skirts…

You know what the messed up part is? He asked her for $200 but that order only cost $135… He told me to use the left over money and apply it to the other two invoices. The moron still owes me $78.50 but the balance was given to him today. Once I figure out the total amount of these skirts, I will call him so he can have my check ready on Wednesday. I really need to show you guys the picture of the desk being covered with invoices…

Moving on!

Bar of Soap:

Last week I had to place a limit of how much cold water flows through the main sink of the Laundromat. Why? Well, because stupid people abuse the water by wasting it and by cleaning their clothes at the sink. First of all, I have a sign over the sink stating “Please do not wash clothes in the sink. Hand washing only.” I guess people ignore the kind request. Really, I should put a sign stating “wash your clothes in here and I will shoot yo ass.” Seems like they would understand that better…

Anywhoots… this lady brought in her laundry in a bucket and she had a bar of soap. She started to wash her clothes in our sink. I told her to stop that and she could use the washer to put her clothes in to wash. I even offered her free soap. She said “No… washer no use soap bar.” She went on and on saying how the bar of soap is far better because her clothes don’t get bleached. I explained to her that clothes only get bleached when she adds bleach to her clothes. I kid you not, she accused me of sabotaging. I got really angry and I yelled at her to stop. I rarely yell; however, she did stop what she was doing. She asked me what she could do now and I gave her the option to go home and finish what she started or to use the washer. She listened to me… that is rare for someone to listen to me. She agreed to use the washer if I helped her, which I did. She wanted to put the bar of soap into the washer and I told her not to. I swear it was like taking care of an eight year old. In the end, I gave her a baggie for the bar of soap and she put it in her pocket. Is it wrong that I wonder what else she does with that bar of soap?

CELL PHONE FAIL

I think today was the day for cellphone fails...... or abuse..


This obese lady was doing her laundry and out of the blue, she started yelling at a male (husband or boyfriend). I was trying to listen to their conversation but I couldn't decipher the gibberish. From the sounds of it, I think she wanted to eat something and he kept telling her "no." The more he would say no, the louder she would yell. I felt like tapping on the male's shoulder and pointing that out. If I was him, I would have bought whatever the fat bitch wanted and just shoved it in her mouth. Actually, come to think of it she would like it. That idea can go out the window.

Once he got his final "no" in, she tossed her cell phone at him and it clonked his head. I burst out in laughter. As a matter of fact, I choked on my own saliva. It's as if it came straight out of youtube.com hahahahaha!

My cellphone failed too... or someone failed at leaving a voice mail message. Someone left me a voice message that was 20 minutes long. -sigh- Whoever called me, didn't even talk or anything. Must have been an accident.

Want to laugh? Try this! I love this "game" I was cracking up at the second part. My co-worker even gave me strange looks!

http://bored.com/game/play/699/This_is_the_only_level.html

ENTER TITLE HERE

Tuesday was relatively quiet. I didn’t have anyone complaining…other than the usual that is. I’m actually amazed at how quiet it was. I managed to finish all of the Laundromat’s invoices from 2009- 2010. OH YEAH! Who would have thunk? Now that invoices are over, what is the possibility of catching up with sleep? This month has been busy and crazy. The silly part is that we are only two weeks into this month, haha! Sadly, the jeep that we use for deliveries and such has died on us –sad face- So now we are looking for a used jeep. One of the owners thinks he can get a used car for only five grand with the mileage being low. –sighs- He won’t. I explained to him that people now aren’t buying cars/jeeps/trucks due to the economy; therefore people are looking for used cars. Car dealerships caught onto this and they raised the prices of used cars. I even saw this change. Three years I was looking to purchase a used jeep with my sister and she found one for three thousand dollars with only 70k miles. Not bad at all! Oh yeah, the year of the jeep was 1995 too. Now, a used jeep from 2004 with 80k miles, it’s a bit over eight thousand dollars.

Hopefully something will be found.

If you have any stories or questions that you would like to share with me and the readers, please email me at Lillaundrygirl@gmail.com

SUCKING UP (Monday)

Before I get started, I am for sucking up and against sucking up. I should really choose one side but I am not. You see, depending on where someone works and what their job entitles them to do to get a promotion or extra money, sucking up would come into play. In retail, sucking up is part of the job to make a sale and have a regular customer give you commission.In my case, I do not get commission but I get satisfied customers coming back the next week to do laundry. Does this mean I suck up? Fuck no. Well… actually… I do… only for a handful of customers because they have been doing laundry at our place for quite a few years. Customers, who have been coming to the Laundromat for over five years, do deserve that extra something from the employees.

If a customer has been doing laundry at our place for just a week and they expect the royal treatment, then they deserve a kick in the ass, not for me to kiss their ass. Oh yeah, there is also a difference between kissing ass and being nice. Just thought I would throw that out there too.

On Monday, I was talking with a long time customer and enjoying the conversation he and I were having. Mind you he is cute and I have mentioned him before. He’s the cute guy that is a carpenter and according to him, he is good with his hands. That was made into a mental note… Another customer approached me and she has been coming to us for the past two weeks. Her name is Anna but I am going to rename her to Stinger Bitch. Stinger Bitch got upset with me because I didn’t take her request of change right away. Actually, let me correct myself, she wanted me to know that she wanted change before she even approached me. In Manhattan, the employees of the Laundromat she went to knew what she wanted the moment she walked in. Guess what slipped out of my mouth! Give up? Well, this is what I told her “Sorry, we don’t roll out the red carpet here.” She wasn’t happy and I opened a new can of worms. She went off on me. Did I deserve it? Maybe but really, I don’t. I’m not the one that was giving the attitude to begin with. At least I gave the cute customer a laugh.

I gave the Sting Bitch her change and she comes back to me saying “this isn’t clean money!” Now, I don’t know what “clean money” means. Maybe it’s a mafia term? Who knows? All I said was “its ok, its clean money if the bodies are hidden.” She didn’t appreciate my humor at all. This made me a sad lil’ monkey.

Long story short, she will continue coming to us but she requested that I should be nice to her because she is an “important” person. She isn’t important. As a matter of fact, she looks like a redneck with a beer gut. –shudders-

Does anyone know how to transfer pictures from a Google G1 Smart phone to the computer without emailing the photos? If you do, please email me at Lillaundrygirl@gmail.com

SPIN CYCLE

I just want to shake off this cold. I have been hit hard these past two months! NOT FAIR!

Oh yeah! Happy First Sunday of the Month people! Wish you all a happy March!

Before I get to links and reader stories, I have a story of my own! (When don't I?... Oh yeah, Wednesdays and Saturdays...)

Yesterday I was given a silly suggestion from a customer. It was so silly to the point where I was willing to go buy it just to shove his head in it. The suggestion? Before I get to this, I will call this guy Radiation Lover. The suggestion was that the owners should put a microwave in the laundromat so people can bring food from home to eat while doing laundry. You know what... now that I think about it, Radiation Lover was onto something. I -should- go purchase a microwave along with a sink and an oven just for the laundromat. It will be ideal and fantastic. Imagine the possibilities of infestation! I would LOVE it! -end sarcasm- I told Mr. Radiation a simple "no". He stood in front of me complaining that he came to do laundry and didn't have a bite to eat. Not my fault dude. I didn't tell him not to eat and I gave him that argument. He told me "well, you are here." The crazy person wasn't making any sense so I was just nodding and smiling while cleaning the front area from the mess that my co-worker and manager left.

Why would I want to put a microwave in the laundromat??? WHY!?!?!? I can just see some idiot putting metal in the microwave and starting a fire. I can even see little kids putting their heads in there to see what would happen. Hell, I can even see someone putting their fucking underwear in there just so it can dry. I can think of other things that would happen too... Yeah, no microwave. This is why I feel like putting his head in a microwave. His brain cells are dead to begin with. Hell, we used to have a coffee pot and we removed that because the thing smelled like urine. This was many many many years ago.

Now that I have entertained you, my readers with stupidity of a customer, I move on to Mike's story. Mike is form Kansas and he owns/works at a laundromat as well and he sends me his stories, which I can relate to. Mike sent the following:

 

"From the moment I saw the young lady enter the door, by the look in her eyes and the way she was holding a small trash bag, I knew that it wasn't going to be good.  When something is filthy, smelly dirty, they always carry it to the cleaners in a trash bag.  So, she smiled at me and said happily, "I just turned 21 and I puked all over my friends coat."  She laid the bag on the counter and gently pushed it toward me.  "Okay," I said, "We'll have it ready for you in a couple of days."  And then I said the thing that the customers dread the most when they bring in that kind of stuff.  I looked straight into her [until then] twinkling eyes and said carefully "You'd better check the pockets."  And then to obligate her the check the pockets, I said "There could be an ink pen, lipstick or something in it that would ruin the coat."  Needless to say, it didn't take long for her expression to change.

 

What goes through peoples minds, I'll never know.  Last week another lady brought in her daughter's coat, in the usual trash bag, covered with vomit.  And, so it goes, "My daughter vomited on her coat six weeks ago and I found it in her closet."  After I said "We'll take care of it," I added, "You'd better check the pockets."  A stunned look came over her face and she turned around and walked out saying, "I'm sure my daughter checked them.""

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Mike, I have dealt with so many liquids... or solids on clothes to be dry cleaned... the horror and the smell... Once I had a customer (I think he moved now) that came in with his "club" shirt drenched in puke. He told me "I know it smells bad but it happens when you get shit faced." I didn't accept the garment. I told him to wash it first then to give it to me. He argued that the shirt was "dry clean only" and I told him to hand wash it. Long story short, he didn't want to deal with his own puke and preferred that I take care of it. In the end, he washed it and then gave it to me to dry clean. I remember him saying "oh my god, the water in the washer is dark yellow." That is how bad the shirt was coated in puke. -shudders- He wasn't the only one. We get people like that all the time and depending on how bad the case is, we either tell them to wash it first or we don't accept the shirt to service. Well, not shirts alone... other garments as well.

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Mike also asked me if we have "dry only" customers in NY. Mike, we do and they do have the worst attitude than your "normal" customer. When I greet them, they ignore me and they have their head bowed down while they go to the dryer section. They don't bother me and I never yell at them (unless they are drying sneakers or rugs). Majority of the laundromats in NY don't allow that though. My friend goes to a laundromat where people have to wash and dry, drying only isn't allowed. The only reason we allow them is because it's a source of bringing in money. If we yell at them for drying only then they may not come back and we lose out on the five bucks. If it was only one customer, five bucks doesn't seem much but the fact that there is more than one customer, the money adds up.

The customers that we do try to limit are those who think we are a coin counting center... You know, the ones that bring in five dollars in pennies, nickels, and dimes... THOSE people are annoying. The people that bring in massive amounts of coins, we only count up to three dollars. No more than that and we give them this statement "we are not a bank." Of course they get upset at that but hey, truth is WE AREN'T A BANK!

LINK TIME!

My friend was featured in a Chain Mail Guild thingy, check it out:

www.artfirechainmailleguild.blogspot.com/

I think this cartoon dude might be my new hero... maybe not... but watching this last night while being on a drowsy medication made me chuckle...

MARCH... I SAID MARCH!!! (For Thursday)

This has NOTHING to do with the month of March. Nothing at all. What does it mean? The same old...same old as crazy people...crazy people that project their craziness onto their children. If the mother was part of the military it would all make sense but she isn't. She is more of a drugster than anything else. This mother is about five feet and six inches tall with a very frail frame. Her hair looks unhealthy and the blonde strands look as if they need a comb badly. She had a North Face coat on and her sneakers are Nike in white...they were sparkling clean. I look over to the kids and they were just wearing hoodies and their sneakers and shoes look beat up and dirty. There is nothing wrong with hoodies! As a matter of fact, I love them; however in this type of weather, I would bundle up my child. Oh yeah, two of the children, their pants were short, you could see their ankles.

There is your description! Now onto the story!

Yesterday I worked at the Laundromat for an hour. I am sick again. This time I am coughing too. Joy. Hence why I didn't blog this entry yesterday, Nyquil knocked me out. Anyways... I was sitting in the front area behind the counter and all of the sudden I hear someone yelling "MARCH!" The first thing that came to mind was "oh great, an invasion!" and the second thought was "huh, it must not be zombies since they just grunt." I took a sip on my tea and my eyes focused on the entrance door. Normally I ignore stuff like this but I think a part of me deep down secretly wanted to know what was going to walk into the door.

As my eyes are fixated on the door, a parade of four kids and a drugged out mother walk in. They walked in with a military formation, marching away... and the kids were responding to the mother's yell of "GET WITH IT, MARCH, MARCH, MARCH!" then I hear "I SAID MARCH DAMNIT!" Poor kids looked miserable. If one of the kids becomes a serial killer, the mother is to blame. The little girl seemed like she was dreading what her mother was doing, as if it was a punishment just to punish the kids. I was interested and amazed. It's as if she was forming her own little army and taking my dream of taking over the world. Meh... actually I don't want to pop out babies yet to start the army and seeing what her kids are feeling, I prefer not to be a tyrant.

Once she started putting the clothes in the washer, she started to order the kids around and slowly, she was backing away to allow the kids do the laundry while she filed her nails. I smell a total psycho bitch. She continued to yell and I started to have other customers come to me with complaints. Believe it or not, I reached four complaints. I approach the psycho bitch and I ask her to lower her voice and to use her "indoor" voice. Everyone knows the indoor voice... we learn that crap from pre-k! She snapped at me. She told me "last time I checked, it's a free country." I blinked at her and decided to go all tyrant on her ass. I told her "last time I checked, this is MY Laundromat and MY democracy in here. Lower your voice!" She gasped and pulled back. She stopped yelling but she didn't stop giving orders to the kids. If I was a multi-millionaire, I would grab those kids and take them away from the mother. I felt so bad for them.

I don't get it... why would a mother dress herself warm and in designer but let her kids freeze and wear clothes that don't fit them? Obviously if she can afford Nike and name brand clothes, she can dress her children more appropriately. -sigh-

In the past when I saw kids wear clothes that didn't fit them or even mothers who looked like they needed a warm coat, I would give a sheet of paper with charities that give out clothing and sometimes even food. I stopped doing that because a couple of times, the adults would get angry/upset and tell me "what, you think I need this because of how I look?" Now, I would explain to these people that I would watch them for a couple of weeks and this is what I determined. Majority of the people were thankful about my gesture and half of those people would come back to me saying "thank you so much for helping me". After a while, I stopped because of the people that would argue with me. It took a lot of energy out of me due to explaining my justification along with other stuff.

After all that, I went home and I went home with a lesson learned.

The lesson that I learned is, to start a cult or a small army... you need your own spawn to start it.

MOSHE ATTACK

When I go to sleep, my phone is on vibrate. Sometimes it stays on vibrate mode throughout the whole day because I forget to turn the ringer on. Around 2pm, I check my phone and I see seven missed calls and 2 voice messages. It was Moshe. Moshe wasn't happy. The first message basically said that their were catering skirts to pick up. The second message said that I have yet to pick up the skirts (obviously dude...) and that I need to call him back as soon as possible. I called him. He didn't sound happy. He told me "Laundry girl, you had to pick up skirts yesterday. Why haven't you picked up my stuff?" I told him "well, first off I don't have a car at the moment and second of all, I didn't have my ring tone on. I'll pick up the skirts tomorrow morning." In a stern voice he said "Laundry girl, I need the skirts tomorrow. They are an emergency." I asked him why he didn't call me on Monday and he said "I was busy".

So let me get this straight, he is allowed to be busy but I'm not? Fuck that shit. I have become sick too many times this year already and it has proven that I need to look out for myself. He could have even called me on Sunday to let me know that I need to pick up stuff on Monday. There really isn't an excuse for him to contact me last minute. Anyways, two hours later he calls me again to remind me followed by another call 10 minutes later. He wanted to know if I was going right that second. I told him "look, i'll call you when I am on my way. Even better, you will SEE me when I get there."

Finally the car arrived back to me (there is one car now, the other car has a transmission problem) and I drove to Moshe. Keep in mind, with all these phone calls you would think there was over a bunch of skirting to pic up right? NOPE! I get there and I just see two bags. One bag had four table cloths and the other bag had six skirts. That is NOTHING! He told me "I need them back by tomorrow morning." I was pissed to the point where I could feel what the look on my face was... -sigh-

I have to give him the invoices tomorrow too. I hope he doesn't give me a hard time...

BED BUGS

Before I get into the story, I just want to apologize for not making a Spin Cycle post yesterday. I was busy during the day and at night, I had to do with some real life issues and people. Guess you can say "shit happens". Don't worry though, this coming Sunday you will have a super duper Spin Cycle post.

Now, onto today. New York has a big issue with bed bugs. Luckily, it has been a long time since a customer came to our laundromat with bed bugs. Until today, today a stupid customer decided to come  to our laundromat to get rid of the little suckers.

First off, she didn't wash her clothes. She just tossed them in the dryer. BIG MISTAKE. I can't stress this enough. If you have bed bugs you MUST WASH ALL OF YOUR BELONGINGS! When you do wash them, you have to wash them on hot. I am contemplating on putting a couple of fliers up in the laundromat with instructions on how to wash clothes if someone is infested with bed bugs. Anyways, I told my co-worker that I am going to approach her and ask her to wash her clothes. My co-worker told me not to so she wouldn't get offended. Fuck if I care if she gets offended. She is doing it wrong and she will get infested again. I approached the female patron and told her the following "Hey! I know you have -that- problem and I recommend you wash them because by just drying them, you aren't doing much." She snapped at me and said "Who is going to pay for it? You? No you aren't. So mind your own business." That's when my logic kicked in. I told her "The amount that you are paying for the exterminator, wouldn't it be worth it to just do the job right instead of bringing an exterminator again?" She thought about it and she took her clothes out and put them in a washer. I was shocked. Really shocked... customers normally don't listen to me. When she removed her clothes from the dryer, I put a plastic bag over my body and hiked up my pants so I can clean the dryer and make sure there isn't anything left behind. I put the dyer on hot for 60 minutes to make sure stuff is dead in there. I even cleaned the area after she left too. Mopped with heavy bleach and I worked the washers she used too so the inside can rinse out.

When she was leaving, she thanked me for giving her the advice with bed bugs. For once I can say my logic worked.

People, when you have bed bugs ALWAYS remove EVERYTHING from the infected area and wash the items or dry clean them. Do NOT clean the infested area. First you must let the exterminator do his chemical business thingy and THEN clean the area. Then you can put everything back in it's place. Having bed bugs now is pretty acceptable and one should not be ashamed of them. It's more of a pain in the ass than anything. Ask a laundry employee for help or do research on the internet to figure out what you need to do. You are doing more harm by not telling a laundry employee that you have a bed bug problem.

If you need more tips on bed bugs, feel free to email me at Lillaundrygirl@gmail.com