Joy to the Whirlpool

It's funny where you find life's little joys. I was shopping on the Upper West Side, before heading on what turned out to be a fool's errand in Central Park, and one of my goals was to buy a new pair of sunglasses. My favorite pair had broken in Lexington and I needed a replacement. I wandered directionlessly up and down Broadway and Columbus. The Gap didn't have any, neither did Banana. Ann Taylor had nice ones, but I didn't want to pay $55 for them. I went in and out of stores for blocks without any luck. I was running out of time before I thought I needed to be in the park. I was ready to give up, when I came upon a street vendor who was selling bags and scarves ... and sunglasses for $5. Sweet!

Then today I was doing laundry -- many, many loads of laundry. There's no point getting up at 9:30 a.m. to watch your stupid national team play a stupid match if you're not going to make use of the day and get some housework done. When I went to put my first load in the dryer, I discovered that my favorite dryer (because you get 99 minutes for your $1.25, so you can do two loads for the price of one) was broken. But it was broken in the best possible way: you didn't have to put ANY money in it. You just had to push the button and you got 97 minutes. I saved $3.75 today! Woohoo!

ETA: People are always asking me if they can see anything I wrote in the paper. Well, today is your lucky day. Something I wrote is on the front page, above the fold. It's the caption for the picture in the top left corner.