High Five!!

The other day I was walking back to my office after having lunch. As I was walking up Bay Street, my colleague, Sherry, was walking towards me, on the way for her lunch. We were both talking on our cell phones at the same time, so instead of telling the person on the phone to hold on and say hello to each other, we did a high five and just kept on walking, without missing a beat. The best part is that one of those tour buses that has an open top was going by at the very same time. I like to think that the tourist on the bus that day saw it, and think that's just how Torontonians are. Everyone high fives, whether we know each other or not! Actually I think we should start high fiving more often, it makes you feel cool. ('feel' being the operative word ;)

Laundry Room Nemesis

I live in a building that has a laundry room, which means I have to share this room with some of the strangest people in the city, let alone my building. There are 3 people in particular, well 1 person and a couple that seem to have the same laundry schedule as I... but never at the same time as each other.

I have a hate on for them both but my main nemesis is the couple. It's a gay male couple, one is tall with gray hair and seems to have a very quiet, timid demeanor. The other is really short, dark hair with a Hitler like mustache and a quiet irritable demeanor. In my mind, I imagine that the shorter man beats the taller man when they are behind closed doors for various reasons like not putting the cap back on the tooth paste or blinking too loudly. This of course I have no real reason to think this sort of thing, but spending so much time in the presence of these men leaves me to my own hateful thoughts.

They have this ritual of doing laundry that is beyond my comprehension. Let me try to explain;
First, they are "folding whores". They remove the wet washed clothes from the washer and FOLD THEM before they place them in the dryer. This to me makes no sense, but perhaps it's me that's missing something... I doubt it though.

Once their clothes are dry they like to take up the entire folding counter space, all for them. If I happen to be using it before they come in, they huff and stomp around like toddlers. Even if I offer to make space for them, they decline and I'm sure, enjoy hateful thoughts about me.

I've only ever seen them do one load at a time and it's always the same clothes; about 6-8 short sleeved collard shirts of each monochromatic colour (there is a dark blue checkered one sometimes, for those wacky casual days I guess). When they have the counter for their folding ritual, they spend 5 minutes wiping the counter down, ensuring not one spec of dust is left before placing their precious shirts upon it. Then the folding begins. The tall quiet one stands quietly and hands the shirts to the short one, one at a time. The short man then begins his folding. His folding is so intricate that I don't know how it ever gets unfolded and worn. It must be like unfolding origami every morning.

To give you an idea of the time spent on this crazy folding, I once had 8 loads of laundry after being away on holiday for 2 weeks. Before they finished folding 8 shirts, I was going out the door with my 8 loads of FOLDED laundry.

I think the strangest part of this is not even their laundry folding "technique" but I've been in that room with them almost once a week for about 18 months and I've never heard them say one single word to each other. It's like they are laundry folding monks.... where one monk beats the other monk.

First'ness

Something I hear all the time from people is; 'Strange things always happen to you'. Lately I've come to realize, that strange things don't just happen to me, (obviously) it's just that I happen to notice strange things, remember them, and later tell someone about the weird thing that happened to me or something strange I witnessed.
Craziness is happening around us all the time, walking down the street, at the grocery store, on the subway-especially the subway, everywhere! I love to people watch. I especially love to watch other people's reactions to something that is going on around them that is out of the ordinary for them.
So stay tuned. I have a lot of 'strange' observations and stories I want to share with you, along with other things that may come to mind at any given time. I look forward to chattin' and leave me your comments, I want to hear your stories too!