Klarissa’s post made me giggle and think, yes, behind every freedom-loving woman is a trusty household appliance. I also giggle that her dishwasher is a she. Now let me tell you about my own domestic love. Sometime around Thanksgiving, the apartment-hunting was getting very discouraging. If anyone’s ever checked out what rent in the San Francisco Bay Area was like, you know it’s not pretty. We found ourselves poking around “up and coming” ‘hoods (read: formerly affordable, rapidly gentrifying).
And when saddled with the necessity of being near public transportation, one has to redefine what a cool place to live really means. And so it went, neighborhood after neighborhood, apartment after apartment assessed, then dismissed for one reason or another. Until we got to uptown Oakland (yes, Oakland now has an uptown).
Be still my beating heart.
Modern building, great. Double-paned windows, cool. South-facing view. Dog-friendly (my naughty dachshund who’s still in Manila might make it Stateside after all). Bus, train, car-share, all good. But when almost as an afterthought, the leasing agent opened a closet door and revealed what came standard, I swear I almost wept.
A washer and dryer. A he, and a she. Fred and Ginger.
In a flash, the unappetizing prospect of having to schlep pre-sorted darks and lights down some basement and sharing damp, detergent powder encrusted machines with strangers and their lint was no longer in my future. No more hoarding quarters. No more doubts about whose undies got sloshed in there before mine, and is it now safe to go in?
Would you sit here?
And since we’re talking squirly, have you ever dared look at what gets caked and smeared on city buses? I have, also not pretty. I’m not even going to go on too much about people who put their feet up on subway seats. Because now I don’t care as much. Because for two months now, I can launder the underside of their shoes off my jeans anytime, day or night.
If you ever came to visit me in San Francisco, forget all those postcard tourist spots. I’ll take you on the #1 MUNI bus for the best people watching. And if you stay with me, Fred and Ginger will of course be at your service, day or night.
