The Laundry Mat

When it came down to using the "quicker picker upper" paper towels to dry off after a shower, I decided that laundry had been put off long enough. Janet was out of town on business and so that duty falls to me. There was enough laundry to fill a small U-Haul trailer. Doing it at home, with 1 washer and dryer, would take approximately 1 month to finish, so I packed up the twins and we headed off to the "Lost Sock II" laundry mat. (Why does a company call itself that. Can you imagine McDonalds, McDonalds II, McDonalds III, McDonalds IV, McDonalds MMMMCCCXXIX)
The twins love going to the laundry mat. They love the vending machines, pinball machines and of course "The Claw." You can tell that Hallie will have a huge gambling addiction as she can't walk away from the claw machine after not being able to capture the Panda Bear. ("Please PaPa, I just need 2 more quarters and I know I can win.")
We stop at the ATM to withdraw about $200 and I hope that will be enough. It's expensive! I mean, I need about 15 regular washers and a couple of those giant load washers. (and, of course, I like the claw machine too.)("You're going down, Panda Bear!")
It's crowded and I can't get the washers I need in one spot, so I'm scattered thru-out the laundry mat. I mark which are mine by placing baskets, detergent bottles, dryer sheets and lost socks on top. Then I go to the change machine and put in my twenties and it's like Vegas, with the clanging of quarters falling. I expect to see lights flashing and sirens blaring, like with a $1,000,000 slot machine.
Annie and Hallie have their gourmet snacks from the vending machine (mmmm.....stale pretzels and RC Cola) and they"re off, $1 in hand, to challange the "Claw." I know that Annie will be back shortly with an attitude of "Oh Well. You can't win 'em all." ("But, can I have another $1 to buy stale gourmet cheese crackers?") I'm worried, though, that Hallie may be hustling others for spare change. But, she comes running back with an orange duck, excited that she won it on her first try. (I'm excited too, because that saves me about twenty bucks.)
Now Annie is sad because she did'nt win a stuffed animal. Hallie says "I'll get one for you. I just prayed to Jesus to let me win and he did. I'll just say another prayer, so that you can win one too." I try to play down their expectations. "Look creating a universe with life is one thing, but winning a stuffed Panda Bear?"
So after taking out our laundry from the dryers and kinda folding them, we headed back home with our 3 tons of clean laundry, an orange duck and a Panda Bear(that Hallie won on her first try!!)