Laundry Day

{In which I receive a mysterious message}

As I mentioned before, on this one day a couple weeks ago I did laundry instead of blogging or working on photos. My grandpa doesn't have a washing machine, so I have to lug my laundry ten minutes away to the coin-operated laundromat. Usually I don't stick around and wait, but that night I decided to do some writing.

It was a good idea, except the next day I realized I'd left my notebook at the laundromat.


I wasn't too alarmed; this wasn't the first time I'd left something at the laundromat, and I had no problems recovering my possession the last time it happened. Still, I couldn't be sure it would be there, so I didn't get my hopes up.

But as I walked to the laundromat on Wednesday night, I did wonder if anyone tried to read it. My favorite fantasy involved finding a note from a cute guy who was intrigued by my brilliant writing and wanted to know me better (a girl can dream). My worst-case scenario was that the notebook would simply not be there, which would have been inconvenient but not a major loss.

Even though that's what I told myself, I was still worried when I didn't see the notebook on the table where I left it. But a quick peek into the magazine holder revealed my notebook, along with the MUJI pencil I wrote with. Relieved, I grabbed the notebook and walked out, flipping through the pages from back to front as I made my way home. Everything seemed as it should be, except... what's this on the first page?

In a messy-but-still-legible scrawl, someone had written (with my MUJI pencil, I'm sure):

寫那麼多你自己看得懂

Given its lack of punctuation, it's a bit hard to translate. I'm guessing the writer meant to convey something along the lines of "you're the only one who can read all this writing," or, more likely, "can you even read all this stuff you're writing?!"

At any rate, it was an unexpected addition to my notebook. It made me laugh, at least.

I'm guessing that someone attempted to read my notebook, but the fact that the contents were in English (and in my irregular handwriting) must have defeated the mystery reader. I'd forgotten to take that into account while dreaming of possibilities. But who knows, it could even have been a cute guy regardless! (For all the good it would do me.) :P

And here's a random photo just for kicks:

The rest of the sign says, "Love or 台北 (Taipei), what do you see first?" Pretty cute, huh? (I bet I can guess which one most of you see first...)

with love,
linda