Socks
The other day I was picking up my laundry from the drop-off service. I arrived just before they closed and the door was locked. seeing me standing outside in the cold, with my bike helmet on, waiving my claim ticket, the shop keeper must have felt a little sympathy because he let me in. we walked to the back of the laundromat and I gave him my ticket. He scanned the bags of laundry, finally coming to mine. "You!" he said. Just seeing my blue laundry bag reminded him. "Too many socks". "Too many!" I laughed because it's true, I have a lot of socks. That's half the reason I drop my laundry off, so someone else has to match them. But he persisted. "Too many". "One sock, one sock, one sock". Too many". I kept laughing because the way he was scolding me sounded so cute but I think he was actually pissed. He wore really big glasses that magnified his eyes, making him look sweet and a little dopey, not like an angry guy. "And too many of the other things" and he gestured at his groin. "Yes, I have a lot of socks and underwear, sorry". "Too many one sock".

I gave him a $20 for my bill of $14.40. The register was closed and he sighed as he dug into his pocket. Pulling out his wallet, he started counting out 20 singles really slowly. Then he gave them to me and said "this is from my pocket" as if I hadn't noticed. So then I gave him $15 from the singles he had just given me. I told him to just keep the change, no big deal. But he said that it was his boss who would get the extra 60 cents not him. Then he made a point of rolling the 15 singles with the claim ticket and stuffing it through a slit in a cardboard box that sat on the counter - I guess to reinforce that the money going straight to his boss. By then he was sort of muttering "too many". I got my bag and walked out, strapped it onto my bike and rode home laughing. I wonder if I will be banned from dropping off my laundry there again.

Frozen Bike
A couple of weeks ago we had a really bad snow storm in Chicago. I had to leave my bike locked up outside of my office because the roads were too treacherous to ride home that night. The next day when I went to dig out my bike, I discovered that I couldn't get my key into the lock it because it was frozen. Luckily I was near a cafe and was able to get a cup of hot water which I then poured over my bike lock to melt the ice. This worked well and I was able to ride home. Later that night, I had planned on going to my friend DeborahÕs opening and knew that my bike lock situation would not have improved. In fact, I had probably made it worse. So, before leaving the house I boiled a pot of water and filled my thermos, ready to battle the frozen lock all night. I'm so glad that I went out prepared. Not only did I need the hot water for my lock, but my brakes and gears froze too. I really hated Chicago winter that night.

- Danielle Malkoff