The Missing Sock

Having spent most of my life living alone, therefore being the ONLY one using the washer and dryer; I've been spared the malady of missing socks, and other laundry mishaps. If a sock disappeared on me, it usually showed up in relatively short order, in the next load of laundry, or by falling out of an outfit I put on.

Now I live with a family of 4, who do countless loads of laundry. My one load a week, sometimes two loads in a week, is nothing. The washers and dryers always seem to be full and the family always needs to work hard to keep up. Anything that disappears in the laundry, may never be seen or heard from again. The mysterious black hole of laundry gets bigger and bigger, the more loads and family members you have, to my way of reasoning.

I only have one pair of navy blue socks. This pair became more valuable to me after buying my navy blue slacks (size 12 no less), a few weeks ago. I like to wear clothes that match, after all! :) When I put away my laundry a week ago, I was distraught (well, that IS too strong a word, I have more perspective on my life than for anything about laundry leaving me distraught), over the loss of one navy blue sock. OK, so we've established, I was not distraught, but I certainly wasn't a happy camper. I figured it was gone, gone, gone never to be seen again.

Life goes on, la di dah... It's been a week full of the innumerable loads of family laundry getting done since I last did my one load of laundry. My lonely navy blue sock nearly forgotten as I set about doing this week's laundry. I went to load the washer and discovered (as usual), the latest load of the family's wet clothes needing to be moved to the dryer, and (as usual) another load of dry clothes in the dryer needing to be moved to the laundry basket. I reached into the dryer to empty it so I could begin my laundry. As if by magic, my hand withdrew from the machine holding my missing navy blue sock! Serendipity! Luck! Miraculous! I find it so funny the total amazement, and feeling of awe I have, all because I pulled out the missing sock! What does that say about me that I can find such a simple thing to be worthy of total bemusement all evening, and even write about it? Hmmmm......