A sleety Sunday here in Berlin. About two hours ago I got home from doing laundry. This is something I have to do because I never purchased a washing machine when I moved to Berlin. So instead of being able to wash my clothes from the comfort of my abode, I need to schlep my laundry out into the elements, brave public transit (because there isn't a laundromat within walking distance), and pay ludicrous sums of money to place my garments in a foreign washing receptacle which hordes of strangers have also emptied their soiled linens into. Due to inflation, right now the cost of one wash is 4.50€. Except that because of the size of the machines, you typically need to use more than one. My current record is three. Then, when the wash is finished, if you don't want to lug a heavy bag of wet laundry all the way home and scatter it about your apartment to dry, you can use the dryer inside the laundromat for a small fee of 3.60€ per 30-minute session. In the future, when I move into a building that permits a washing machine, I will buy one outright.
Today, at the laundromat I typically go to, after I loaded my clothes into washers 16 and 17, when I went to insert the coins to get things going, I saw that the slot had been blocked. It wasn't accepting coins. The only way to pay was to use a series of 5€ bills. My back pocket was filled with coins for this purpose, but I had no small bills to slide into the machine. Every Sunday in Germany all stores (except for restaurants, bars and cafes) are closed. So I couldn't easily walk into a shop and ask them to break a 50€. I removed and repacked my clothes and marched myself down to the nearest laundromat, hoping this one accepted coins. When I arrived at the door some minutes later, I was greeted by a sign that said the laundromat was closed. I know they say Sunday is the lord's day, but it sure was starting to feel like Satan's. I pulled out my phone and saw that the next nearest laundromat was a 10-15 minute walk away.
So I made my way through Berlin streets littered with random drops of dog (and human) shit and found myself at a laundromat I'd never been to. This laundromat was unlike any laundromat I'd ever seen. It was high-tech and futuristic, had large machines and glowing LCD screens and it was completely empty - unlike my normal laundromat where you sometimes need to fight for a free machine. The floors were made of slick black marble and the walls were of a neatly cut pale stone. Suspiciously I searched for the prices because this laundromat looked way too posh for me. I found the costs and they were comparable to the dirty, bum-addled laundromat I usually frequent. All over the ceiling were pairs of those black spherical cameras, like the ones you'd see inside a casino. It was quiet, there was no vague smell of urine or sight of filth, and the space seemed to be well manicured and maintained. It must have been a drug front, or perhaps owned by the Turkish mafia. It will be where I go to do my wash from now on.
Tonight I'm supposed to go meet a few friends I haven't seen in a while. Two of them are previous coworkers and one is current. I actually met with the current one for dinner last Thursday. The only problem is I don't enjoy eating out lately because ever since just before Christmas my stomach has been especially sensitive, even for me. On Friday, after going out Thursday, my stomach was bloated and cramped and irritated to the point where it felt as though I'd been drinking. I haven't had pizza or sweets or alcohol or anything too fatty or greasy since then. My stomach is in a purified state now, practically a sanctum, so when I add any unsavory elements to it, it tends to react even more aggressively than it would otherwise. So I cook at home and eat relatively bland foods. I tried explaining this to my friends but they didn't get it and said I should just go out to eat with them anyway, or that if I didn't want to eat I could just go and sit there. While this is true, I always feel uncomfortable taking up space in a restaurant without buying anything. Perhaps this is something I shouldn't care about, but I do. The weather is also dark and grey and wet and makes going outside seem a chore. Lately I like to be in bed by 10:00. I advocated meeting earlier in the day, so I could leave once dinnertime rolled around, but they preferred to meet at 7:00. Going for an hour or two and not eating and leaving early seems rude and also inconvenient. I guess I still have a few hours to decide, but at the moment I'm not feeling it.
Sunday, particularly during the winter season, has become an insular kind of day for me. I don't like to do anything. It's the last day before the work week returns so I generally like to start the week fresh, having gotten decent sleep, having had time to read or research something in the evening before beginning my psychological preparation for the coming workweek. I have become habituated to this routine. It's not easy to break.
Suddenly I'm feeling very tired. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'll take a nap. Perhaps after that I'll feel rejuvenated and ready for action. Probably not, but here's to hoping.
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