Is it worth the effort?

I think clothes get dirty just waiting around to be washed. We seem to expend a lot of energy in the buying of clothes, looking at them, in catalogs, in store windows, online, but I don't feel enough is really out there about the washing of clothes. I am not sure I was properly prepared for this. Other than my mother assuring me that accidents happen and the best thing is to put it in cold water right away (these days, I usually chuck it out, hmmm, not sure I fully absorbed the lesson there) I am trying scrub up a lace long sleeve blouse. I swear I never noticed before but the black label has dyed some of the white fabric. I doused it in a combination of vinegar, Resolve, laundry degtergent, and Ajax powder. Nothing caught on fire. And it does seem less blue. If I get around to ironing it this might get worn this week.

Edu-tainment

I must be the only person alive to have visited Vancouver's Storyeum, touted as "edu-tainment in the heart of historic gastown" over 13 times in its heyday. Anyone who visited me during the time I lived there was treated to a visit to Storyeum. It was intended to be a big draw during the Olympics as the final installment of the whole tour was a rousing homage to Vancouver's Olympic spirit, but alas, it didn't live to see it. Unfortunately, there were many things wrong both on stage and off, (though it was fantastic model for the arts - full time employment for actors?? unheard of in Canada!)and it finally went bankrupt before I had the gumption to purchase that cd in the giftshop of all the songs. At the time I didn't need it, when you see a performance over 13 times I garauntee you I had those ditties on repeat in my head for ages. I don't so much anymore. What was Storyeum? It was a live performance tour of Canada's history, touching on treatment of Chinese Railway workers, the Gold Rush's British mail order brides and the Suffregette movement, all with a rousing song and toe tapping dance to go with it. I should probably mention that some of the more insensitive material was removed early on, but it still had an eye rolling WTF vibe to it. One day, I would like to remount Storyeum, as a one man show (the way Canadians are meant to see theatre), complete with the tankard juggling, the punch and judy show, and the real train engine... In the meantime, I will have to be content with endevering to do for laundry, what Storyeum did for history; bring this museum of my wardrobe to life.

Dry Cleaning in the Urban Environment

When I moved to the big city I left behind my suburban-vehicular-centric lifestyle and became a public transit-er, and I am constantly feeling guilty every time I run into a fellow environmentalist touting that they never miss those days anymore. I do. Everytime I go to the dry cleaners, on either end of the errand. I drop off my dry cleaning on my lunch break at a place a couple blocks from the office, it is a nice nieghbourhood and it is a nice dry cleaners. "Pick Up?" I get asked, "No rush" is my standard reply because this is what my mother says (yeah, I'm like, over 30 years old, so I don't know why I am hanging onto the dry cleaning protocols learned from rote in my childhood). I always get given a day 4 days from the drop off date. In this case, that was a Saturday. Of a long weekend. So I went in on Tuesday on my lunch break to pick up said dry cleaning. Back at my cubicle a co-worker commented, "So, you picked up your dry cleaning?" is it so obvious? My errands before home included a stop off at Kinkos to print off some photos from the weekend. I slung my dry cleaning over the back of the computer station but I have a feeling it wasn't wanted. I felt self conscious on the subway all the way home. Though I reminded myself that I planned on walking from the station to my house instead of getting the bus as ususal (I gained 5 pounds on the all hummus diet recently. A friend of mine asked me to explain exactly how much hummus that is, duh, it is obviously five pounds...sheesh and I thought my math was bad...) So me and my dry cleaning walked home. Does everyone else know something I don't? Like, "people who don't have cars, don't have dry cleaning" - ?