i guess i need a vacay...

i was renting 3 loosely connected funky and charming beach cottages from richard. as usual, once he had cut the deal with me he had remorse and then pestered me for more money. as usual, i told him to bugger off. i promptly forgot about him and immersed myself in playing with my friends, laughing to tears, cocktail hours that started at noon and delicious communal dinners that ended with those of us still able to amble climbing every evening to the top of the bluff to watch the sun fall into the ocean and paint the lucky sky in pinks, oranges and yellows.

one morning i woke to the sound of what i thought was a wailing cat and soon discovered that richard had rented my seldom-used front cottage to a very serious lesbian couple with a small baby son. 'oh great... there goes my fun.' i said to no one but myself. i was fuming at the thought of having to consider the baby in regard to my noise level- or worse, having the baby disturb me as i slept till noon. i tried to get hold of richard, but the cell reception was spotty and it was impossible. soon my friends were waking and one by one discovered the baby (who by this time had stopped crying and crawled to the gate to show himself). he was curious and unbelievably cute and soon my friends had lifted him over the gate and his chubby little body got passed around until he wound up in my arms. 'okay,' i thought, 'the baby can stay but the parents are still going to ruin things for me...'. by mid afternoon we realized the parents were not serious, just responsible and very shy- also incredibly tolerant. they came to our crazy dinners and made sure we didn't fall asleep with the stove on.

fast forward to my drunk friends and i at a laundry club. a place where you could listen to bands in between changing out your loads. we were all smiling and so excited as we entered the club with our baskets on our hips. so. many. haier. machines. we knew our clothes would be really clean! like a little domestic procession we snaked from room to room to room looking for open machines, but people were crabby and hogging even empty ones by placing towels over the open doors. i started to feel scrappy and began to clear a row of the towel 'place-cards' but things started to get angry with the machine monopolizers and my friends ushered me out before any actual shit went down. the next day we bought a used washer and dryer on craigslist, had it delivered to the beach houses and continued to have happy.