IN WHICH FAMOUS AUTHOR ROB BYRNES DISCOVERS A NEW WAY TO SPEND MONEY AND AVOID WORK
First, a confession: I have led a very spoiled 46 years. With the exception of a short period when I lived in a small apartment in Albany, I have always had a washer and dryer in my home or apartment. I even had this convenience in my first two apartments in Manhattan, which is unheard of, because you're usually lucky if you can fit a bed in a Manhattan apartment.

Until two years ago, that is, when I moved to my own place on the Far East Upper East Side, aka Manhattan's Student Housing District, aka Queens West.

Okay, there are a washer and dryer in the basement. But the basement is gross, and I don't like going down there. There are bugs down there. And the only access is from an outdoor staircase where pigeons like to congregate and defecate. As a result, I have fallen into the pattern of doing laundry only when necessary, and always at the last minute.

Nornally, that's merely a pain in the ass. But -- as you know, because you study this blog with the zeal of a... of a... a blog-student -- I have spent the past month working countless hours drinking planning a special event, and now I'm in the crunch.

And I'm also down to my last pair of boxer-briefs.

Okay, so that's the bad news. The good news is that it suddenly occured to me that I should take advantage of my dry cleaner's 'wash and fold' service. And now I have discovered that for $8 -- only a few dollars more than it would cost me in quarters -- I can pay someone else to do my laundry!

I do have a slight problem with the fact that strange Korean ladies will now be handling my undergarments (umm... no offense, Wayne), but I'm going to have to get past that. It's convenient, inexpensive, and will minimize my potential encounters with waterbugs, so there's really no downside.

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Speaking of that special event -- Inside DecArts 2005 -- if you're going to be in Manhattan during the upcoming weekend, I have some good news. Friends of this blog are invited to attend any (or all) of the seminars as my guest, on a space-available basis (and I do think there will be space available.) E-mail me and I'll take care of the arrangements. 'Cause I love my readers. Truly.