When laundry day is writing day

Whenever possible, I try to assign either Saturday or Sunday as my "laundry day." I do my laundry at a laundromat, and since taking my little girl with me has me on edge since she runs ALL OVER the place (including in the parking lot, where she could get hit by a car or kidnapped), I do my laundry on a day she's normally with her dad. But when I do have to take her with me, it's only when absolutely necessary.

Today was one of those times I didn't have my daughter in tow. You would think I was doing my laundry kicked back with a book. Well, I HAVE kicked back with a book at the laundromat many times before. But today I did something different: I wrote.

I didn't start writing right away, of course. I wanted to wait for just the "right" moment where I knew I had at least a large chunk of time to focus on my writing and after I had some time to think about what exactly I wanted to write. An essay? Poem? Song?

There are many things I've crammed into my head to write. Since I can't write whenever I want to, I have to keep ideas for things to write in my mind for later. Some of them I have written down, some of them are in the "closet" of my mind. I looked down at a section of the newspaper I had in my notebook, tucked away several days ago after an article in there gave me the idea for an article to write. I thought 'why not write this one now?' and set to work. Of course, my handwriting was terrible. Haha. I don't think ANYONE, not even a skilled pharmacist, could read my handwriting. Except for me! (ONE of these days I hope I can get a laptop to replace my notebook.) But I wrote the article, anyway. I didn't know where I wanted to go with it at first, but the minute I started writing it, the more I decided on how to "shape" the article I was writing.

I've always wondered how others at the laundromat would react to seeing someone slouched in a chair, scribbling away. One older man took a glance at the title of my article as he passed me by, but that was it. Not much else from the rest of the crowd there. The chairs at the laundromat aren't entirely comfortable for a prolonged task such as writing, but I think when you're into writing something as I was, comfort really isn't an issue. ;)

To say the least, I wrote the first draft of this long-planned article, and I'm glad it's finally done. One less thing to keep in the closet of my mind! And I'm also glad I took advantage of some uninterrupted time to write something. When you're a writing parent, you've GOT to grab those free moments. I'm not saying that I slice my wrists if I end up bringing my child along on laundry day. Haha. But I'm saying if I CAN get that chance to do the laundry without worrying about my daughter getting hurt, kidnapped or worse, I'm a happy customer.

Or... should I say, a happy writer.