Experiences with laundry and being in the "Friend Zone"

I know what you're all thinking...or at least what I should have prompted you to be thinking with my title..'Laundry? What does he know about laundry? He's not in college..." However, I've been doing the laundry for the past four years diligently once a week, unlike the rest of you spoiled lazy bums.. :P.

My friend who goes to UC Davis recently came back into town for a weekend and asked her mom to do her laundry. Her mom said no, so she immediately called me asking for me to come over there to teach my her how to do laundry properly (yes. this is what I've been reduced to. the laundry tutor) So I go over there, green plastic basket full of my laundry in the back seat, and begin the lesson. Seperate denims/towels from normal clothing from whites from delicates blah blah, whether or not it really mattered if you used the different temperatures for water. She had some random bottle of fabric softener in there that her mom insisted we use for her daughter's 'delicates'. Of course, my friend didn't know what to do, and asked me to show her. As I dipped my hands gingerly into the basket of outrageously tiny scraps of ...'delicates'...and added fabric softener and whatnot, I realized, i had never used fabric softener before. So, (asking her permission first) i went ahead and dropped my basket of boxers and jammies in varying shades of green0 to mix with hers, and started the washer. I have to say, as i pulled those undergarments out of the dryer, it was the softest thing i had ever felt...it was like silk spun from clouds and cotten candy *sigh..* The evening ended with her mom taking a picture of me holding up my green boxers next to her holding up what resembled a couple of pieces of string and cloth....a VERY weird night.

Now...the "Friend Zone". For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, the "Friend Zone" is when a girl decides that you are basically going to be the equivalent of any of her other girl-friends and frequently bitches to you about her current relationship issues. Common derivations of this concept involve a boy being interested in a girl, but being shunted to the "Friend Zone" and realizing that there's no exit, and so is forced to be the confidante for the remainder of their pathetic relationship.

In my case, this (different girl than the laundry girl..) was the best friend of a girl that I used to be into when I was 13. Naturally I had figured that a good way in was to become really good friends with her best friend, right? Unfortunately that didn't work for me, and the entire thing backfired since I was stuck with her best friend for the rest of middle school and all through high school. But tonight, I think I may have found an exit to the "Friend Zone".

She spent two hours..TWO HOURS bitching about how her current boyfriend never makes time for her, and doesn't ditch his friends to hang out with her, and forbids her from drinking because she does promiscuous things whenever she drinks (oh big tragedy there..) and blah blah blah blah.. Somewhere during the time when she was explaining how "they were once on a break and she had been drinking and had kissed one of her other exes and so this guy accused her of cheating, which was SOOO messed up" I came up with a plan for a way out. What did I have to lose, right?

I wet my lips, and broke into her tirade of "I mean, i do EVERYTHING he asks me to, even oral se.." "Listen, have you tried looking at this from his point of view?" She freezes. Looks up at me. "What?!"
Bingo! "He must be having a really hard time with college, and blah blah blah long paragraph of bullshit, and I think you should be a little more supportive."
"...oh...well...i guess.."
"Yep, so was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"
"uh...not really.."
"Oh ok, cool! Well I've got to go, have to teach my friend how to do the laundry. later!"

:D