Patty’s Ponderings: Forging Friendships in Weird Places, Or, It Started at the Laundromat

Doing laundry is one of life’s least satisfying chores. Wait a minute. Let me start over.

Cleaning the bathroom is one of life’s least satisfying chores. Oh who am I kidding; doing any kind of housework isn’t satisfying in the least, until it is done. And then, only done by someone other than me!

And I hate yard work too! I mean I really hate yard work! Geez, where is a husband when you need one? Apparently not in my life, that’s where!

But I started to go somewhere else, so I’ll veer back on that road. As unpleasant an experience as doing laundry is, it is made even more so by that fact that I have to do it at a laundromat.

Yes there is an old electric washer-dryer pair in my basement, in a house with gas, not electric connections. At one time my landlord talked about getting another electric line in for my appliances, but that never happened and since nearly 20 years have gone by, I don’t think it will and that pair of appliances are now over 30 years old! But again, that is another story.

What I’ve been trying to get at, without much success is that even though that experience is less than optimum, sometimes there appears out of nowhere a very bright light. Last Sunday, I was at the laundromat, when a lovely young woman came in and I immediately thought, ‘I think I know her’.

But after living in Sioux Falls for over 30 years, and meeting so many people, I think that a lot, so I kept silent. Thank goodness she didn’t. She asked, “Are you Patty?”  I said I was and the jibber-jabbering continued from there. She told me a great story of how her hubby had broken the dryer and so here she was on a Sunday at the laundromat!

She is a longtime listener of the show Ben and I do and therefore, a member of our family. She was so animated, fun and engaging that I truly look forward to seeing her again. The encounter reminded me of another meeting with a Ben and Patty Show listener years ago.

I had a period in my life when I was a gym rat. I know, hard to believe looking at me now. But during that time I was a rabid gym-a-holic. One day in the locker room I commented about how much I liked a gal’s swimsuit.

She responded back with a rapid fire monologue about how she “loved ‘The Ben and Patty Show’-- had called us numerous times and had listened forever”-- she knew who I was, but didn’t want to bother me, because, “she was sure that happened all the time!”...and on she went in one breath.

She was funny, brainy, beautiful and extremely talented musically and 8 years later she was still one of my dearest friends! We lost Kim to a reoccurrence of  breast cancer almost a year ago and it is still impossible for me to mention her without crying.

So…this is a long and round-a-bout, rambling way of saying, ‘dearest Nicole, thank you so much for making me smile last Sunday in that place I really don’t enjoy being. You just don’t know what that meant to me. See you soon.’