Go to laundry matt and wash comforter, Vacuum first floor, Wipe down tables, Clean stove, Wipe down counters, Clean appliances, Wipe down fridge, Run Dishwasher, Take out trash, Clean kitchen floor, Clean bathroom floor, Clean sink, Do more laundry, vacuum third floor, Clean bathroom floor, clean kitchen floor, Clean counter tops, Clean appliances, clean toilet and sink, wipe down tables upstairs.
For ten minutes I felt really accomplished.... now I feel really tired.
So yeah, the roomies were out today and I ended up up cleaning... everything.... and I headed to the new laundry down the street. I have always loved laundry matts. They're this weird place where you take a time out from life. I find the sounds calming and everything comes out cozy and warm and smelling like softner and cotton. Mean while, you spend an hour playing arcade games or reading a book. It's a win/win. Anyway...
I was sitting at a table reading a book and I couldn't help but notice the cutest little girl you've ever seen. She was romping around and smiling at everyone and having a good time. She had this tiny stuffed horse in her arms. I told her it was “a very nice pony.” She promptly corrected me. “It's a horse. His name is Herman. Herman the horse.” and then she bounded away. I laughed and went back to my book. After a while I saw the same little girl pushing a laundry cart around. Herman sat dutifully in the basket. For some reason this bothered her mother. Her mother yelled at her and her father went and scooped her up and sat her down at the table. He attempted to mollify her by putting a cartoon on the laptop. She wasn't terribly interested and looked rather miserable. I did the first thing that came to my mind. I pulled the most colorful page I could find out of a magazine and started to make origami. You know, those things kids call fortune tellers or cootie catchers. They're the only origami I know.
My intention was to give it to the little girl, but, as I finished the folds, her sister (who was maybe 12) came over and began to gush. She sat down beside me and asked how I made it. I tore another page from a magazine and showed her. As we folded the pages together her sister came toddling over and looked on with awe. I've never understood why they were called cootie catchers and, since we weren't writing on them, they weren't fortune tellers so I told her they were paper monster faces. I opened the paper maw and made “rawr” noise. She giggled uproariously. I gave it to her and she ran off to show her mother. Her sister stayed at the table with me and for the next fifteen minutes we made “monster” after “monster.” As we worked, we talked about how silly it was for the advertisements to show women in clothes they would never really wear in poses that were completely unnatural. Oh how I love random teaching moments. I had one paper creature on each hand when the little sister came back. I made the paper monsters rawr again and she giggled. Then she slowly put her finger up to poke it......As predicted the paper monster gnawed on her finger. She asked if she could have this paper monster too. I said of course and she ran off. By the time I left those girls had a dozen colorful, glossy, paper creations carefully collected into a laundry cart.
Of the many reasons to volunteer, one I frequently hear is “to gain life skills.” Days like today remind me that all skills are life skills. Being trained in accounting or law wouldn't have helped me today, but having a father who showed me to make paper creatures (along with possessing no understanding of when a situation should be awkward) means, for just a little while, three lives were touched by a wonderful moment of silly, simple, joy.
~Jennifer
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