French Bathrooms, Cheese With Butter And Laundromats

I miss you little, miniature, child’s clothing sized personal washer sans dryer from studio in Paris…even though you only had the capacity to wash 2 pairs of my husband’s jeans at a time, you were mine…all mine.

Ok, we’re back in the US, AKA land of the large bathroom stalls, toilet paper flushing, separate male and female restrooms…did I mention that I missed American bathrooms? No, really, my first toilet experience was at the Paris airport where I saw a sign for bathrooms-Male icon (floor below), Women icon (floor below that). So, I go down a floor and walk past the male icon bathroom on the way down to the “women’s” floor. When I get to the women’s floor, there is another multi-stall bathroom but as I’m walking in I see a man’s back to me and he is using a urinal. *little gasp and walking backwards. I look back at the sign above the door and it has a male icon next to a female icon. ?? I scan the floor to find the ACTUAL women’s bathroom and then a nice French man exiting the bathroom and seeing my confusion/distress says, “le/se mix.” Ah. Thank you, French man. I run into the stall closest to the door with eyes facing floor. I feel shy and unworldly-Oh, oui, le mix! Of course. I knew that and I’m totally ok with it. Watch me linger at the co-ed hand washing station showing you how comfortable I AM. Not.

Right now I’m missing chocolate croissants on the reg and the permission/right to eat a huge pile of cheese with a modest amount of bread (add butter to that combo and you’ll even be celebrated as a local there).

Currently we’re living at a hotel by the Los Angeles airport and I’m doing my best to keep up with wifely duties of laundry, food and keeping expenses low in those departments. We’re living off of GF cereal with almond milk, soup, grocery store take-out from Whole Foods, hotel breakfasts and YELP’s recommendation for great Thai food.

I dropped Chris off at work (we have one car now), dropped off the dry cleaning at a great and inexpensive place (owned by a Korean woman of course who appreciates me speaking Korean to her but responds in English-knowing well that I’m faking it) and now it’s time for a cup of tea and posting. On today’s agenda? Well, pick up lots of laundry detergent for a few hours of fun at the laundromat! I’ve been to a laundromat like once. The last time I went to one was to wash a huge comforter I was too cheap to pay a dry cleaner to do a few years ago. It was in a nice neighborhood but yes, I got cat called and a bit harassed. Hopefully less excitement today.

The wonderful wedding photographer in Paris just emailed me our photos and I’m really nervous about opening them! You know when you are waiting for something that could potentially be incredible and then it arrives quicker than expected? I had prepped myself for 2 weeks of wondering, imagining and fantasizing about these photos. Well, I’m downloading them as I write this. I’ll allow myself 10 minutes of decadent browsing before slamming this laptop shut and running off to laundry land where I will be imagining these photos in a large montage frame hanging in some. Ok, nix that, the download says it could take 2 hours. I may get the wait I was asking for after all. Worth the $12 wifi fee at the hotel today?

Well, after watching the news this morning with the shootings in the Washington Navy Ship Yard, it again puts things into perspective for me.

Big bonus of the day: I slept from 5 PM yesterday evening until about 1:30 AM, ate some leftovers and went in for round two from 2:30-4:30 AM!

Any good foreign bathroom experiences?