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Notes -
Switching from folding my laundry at home to folding my laundry at the laundromat has so far been a 10/10 experience for me in terms of getting the laundry fully done. Also, I really enjoy the aesthetic of nicely folded laundry in the basket when I pack it all up instead of the usual pile. The only drawback is all of the TVs are set to sports and I don’t know any of the rules of the common ones.
Additionally, I have now handwritten written up to 9 chapters of my personal story on regular looseleaf line paper going at a total of eyeballing 150+ pages. Unfortunately the story got longer, so I’m still on the rising action. I’m at a bit of a drag in the story so I’ve gotten into the hobby of testing out the hundred or so pens in my boyfriend’s pencil case every two pages. My findings so far are;
Sharpie S.Gel: 3/10 my boyfriend says at a glance it makes the most legible and aesthetic writing, but it’s a drag in terms of speed so I rank it the lowest tbh.
Pentel Wow! BK440: 3/10 it wrote pretty fast but the ink is faded and it’s pretty shitty in terms of comfort so it’s #2.
Uniball Signon207: 2/10 it has nicer ink than the BK440 the but writes almost as slow as the S. Gel which is a pain and is pretty thin in terms of linework.
Uniball Vision Elite: 4/10 it’s slow but can pick up speed if you find the right rhythm but super heavy on the ink so it’s satisfying.
Pentel EnergGel 0.7mm metal tip: 5/10 my current speedster and to-go, it has the dark ink of the Uniball and the fastest speed with a rubber grip that’s on another level. It takes me places.
Pilot Dr. Grip Gel: 5.5/10: love her. The gel grip is the best out of all of them, which is why it’s above the Pentel, but it’s just a little slower it. It makes up for in a nice dark thinnish line. I’m waiting to find something with comfort of the Dr. Grip and the speed of the Pentel.
Bic Round Stic M: 3/10 it’s fast but it sucks to hold it bites into my finger especially when the speed picks up.
Bic Soft Feel Med: 2/10 they added a grip to it and somehow made it worse and slower.
I have some traumatic memories with laundromats. I never used one back home since here we have domestic help who take care of all our laundry needs, but I did need to wash all our clothes (my ex-co-founder and I, I had two co-founders, talking about the younger, saner one here). For a few months, I forgot what it felt like to wear clothes that had been folded or ironed at all.
A funny incident was the time a friend of mine came to pick me up at my mud hut that I was vacationing in for a week. We both fell in the mud since the slipperiness was too much for his Vespa. All my laundry fell out of my bag. I spent 3-4 days wearing the same pair of shorts and t-shirts with a raincoat, to the point where most people I met would light-heartedly joke about it, including the PUAs reading my field reports.
I'm sympathetic to weird moments at the laundromat. I've developed a strategy of maintaining a resting bitch face at all times while keeping a super straight posture, refusing to make eye contact with anyone and keeping my eyes glued to my writing projects. Otherwise, I risk catching the attention of creeps.
After 3-4 days of the same clothes it must have been a special type of smell haha.
My experience was the total opposite, I only ever used them in South East Asia and everyone was helpful, cordial and happy to help. Being a girl makes a difference but we did have female expats there who reported the same things.
I still bathed 1-2 times a day, so it was not that bad. Otherwise, I would have done worse with the girls there. Though there is something about worn clothes, some girls liked the smell of my t-shirt if they were into me, as it reminded them of me. I was too intoxicated to notice anything, honestly. Though I looked like a sitcom character with the raincoat and crocs and trying to shuffle whilst wearing that. I still cant believe I was able to dance for 7 days wearing fucking crocs.
Most dudes are creepy by default. If you live in the west, then some might even be homeless drug addict kinds who would scare any sane female.
Where I live, everyone uses the laundry mat, and since everyone includes everyone and it's connected to an interstate highway, there is a broad range of personalities coming in and out 24/7. Being helpful and cordial unfortunately runs a risk of the interaction being extremely awkward; it's best to keep very mindful on one's business and stay extremely neutrally polite. I've never subscribed to the notion that most dudes are creepy; I think people just can be creepy and there's a lot of people going in and out of that mat.
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