Res. Life and the City #3- Awk-ward

Carrie's editor, showing Carrie her book cover: Let me talk you through it. Blurred background, aah, faced paced city. And you, naked with nothing but your ideas.

Carrie: I get it. But, see, no matter how fast paced the city, I always manage to get my clothes on before I leave the apartment.


Ladies and gentlemen, loyal readers throughout the nation, I have a proclamation to make. A mere 10 minutes ago, I went from being an authoritarian, a position, or a title and became a living, breathing, normal human being in the eyes of one of my residents. Did I help them through a hard time, advise them to move forward in their development, or impact their life in a definitive way?

No. I was in the same room as they were and we were both doing laundry. I have one word to describe this interaction: Awk---ward

Let me take you back for a minute. Do you remember when you were in elementary or perhaps even middle school and you saw one of your teachers outside of your school for the first time? Maybe it was in the grocery store or attending one of their children's Little League games or perhaps in the porn section of the local video store on a dare during your best friend's 18th birthday party...wait, maybe that was just me. No matter where you saw them, do you remember the realization that they too were human beings who didn't solely exist in their classroom and then retire under their desk with a cup of tea in one of those #1 Teacher mugs? Well, I just went from being a wide-eyed, slow-to-comprehend child, to being the teacher figure. It's weird. It makes me feel old. I don't know if I like it. Let me see if I can attempt to set the scene for you...

I was just minding my own business, desperately hoping that no one would want to do laundry at 6 o'clock on a Monday night. I was going to do laundry last night, but soon realized that Sunday is a prime night for the college-aged laundry going crowd. Instead, I decided that had at least one more outfit in my closet so I held off until tonight. Mistake #1

Mistake #2 Having all of my undergarments on the top of my laundry basket. I normally do a better job at hiding them, but tonight I just didn't care. I think I was getting a little too cocky about this whole thing. I was really spoiled at my last job. While I didn't have a washer/dryer in my apartment, it was free and was only available to my supervisor and myself so I never had to deal with these types of situations.

Mistake #3 Not scoping out the laundry room before I went gallivanting in, throwing caution to the wind, and perhaps a bra or two in the process. If I would have done a little laundry-themed espionage which could have been under the guise of just checking the room for minor repairs, which would have been totally within the boundaries of my job, I could have avoided the whole situation.

Mistake #4 Not attempting to make witty banter when I first entered the laundry room where F-I-V-E residents stood and not making eye contact with anyone. I knew this was a mistake the first time I made eye contact, plastered a forced, but all-too-thin smile on my face, and went to work. If I would have said hello, or tried to make conversation, this whole situation could have been chalked up to another way of community development. Instead, I let the residents know that I was uncomfortable, which in turn made them uncomfortable, which turned into a bad sit-com where no one wants to say anything, but everyone wants to say something.

Mistake #5 Attempting to force witty banter into the already awkward conversation after the window for such banter was clearly shut, weather proofed, and covered with plywood. I knew it was awkward and the last thing I wanted was for students to feel awkward around me or think that I wasn't a flesh-and-blood human who did normal things like dishes, laundry, or errands. While I made a valiant attempt, the only response I got was a few shifty looks out of the corner of their eyes, a quickening pace of laundry folding, and one woman who threw her newly cleaned clothes in her Bed, Bath, & Beyond basket and fled the room. I automatically assumed that she went back to her room, barely conceling her laughter, and gleefully recounted her experience with her suitemates to the delight of all in her room.


While I would love to disect this embarrassing moment in my professional career to an even deeper level, it is sadly time to change my laundry from the washer to the dryer. Not worry though, I will have learned from my mistakes. I vow to wrap my undergarmets in a non-descript bath towel before I transfer them, I will scope out the scene of the laundry room before entering the scene of the crime, I promise to attempt witty banter if there is a resident hiding around a corner that I didn't catch the first time, and above all else, I will not attempt witty banter if there is already a cloud of awkwardness hanging over the room.

Welcome to the life of a live-in professional!