I love using the laundromat up on NMSU. It’s open twenty-fours, so I can get my laundry done no matter how late (or early) it is. Then there’s the fact that it has free wi-fi, plenty of outlets to plug my laptop into and comfy couches and chairs to sit on. How can you go wrong?

You go wrong when the weirdos and a-holes come out, that’s when.

One Saturday night/Sunday morning, this one guy was harassing my mother while we were there doing laundry. He just really started lecturing her and telling her she couldn’t be there or she would be arrested because she’s too old to be a student and blah blah blah. Never mind that he was in his late thirties. In any case he started flinging racial slurs about Mexicans and wetbacks and how he couldn’t wait to leave New Mexico. Ironically enough, this guy is a graduate student and has been one since I started college myself. I know this only because I used to work for Pan Am Special Events and as event staff I had to deal with him many times. Not to mention he frequents the computer labs a lot as well. In short, he’s the type that knows everything and tries to convince the unsuspecting that he’s the one in charge, the authority. And when challenge his response is always “I have a 3.0+ GPA and I am a graduate student, I know what I’m talking about!”.

In any case, I got fed up with Mexican and wetback comments so I snapped, sunk to his level a bit and gave as good as I got. He kept it up and I eventually picked up a McDonald’s cup someone had left lying around, threw the contents at him and told him that the “Mexican stench” he was complaining about was fixed now leave. I haven’t seen him there since thankfully. I really dread what a rematch would be like.

Well today I decided to tag along with my mother since my car is shot (more on that later) so instead of going late at night I went early this morning. This time when we had the misfortune to run into an idiot I kept my mouth shut and just let my mom deal with it.

This guy, who apparently is always there on Sunday mornings, showed up again. Now my mom has seen him several times and apparently he’s always been polite and nice to her. Apparently something crawled up his ass and died today. There are only two tables to fold laundry on, only one has bars to hang your clothes on hangers from, and both are pushed together. To understand, see the diagram below.

Now see my mom and I were there long before he was there, she was at the table without the rack on it folding her clothes, and since she was putting clothes in the basket, she had the basket within reach of her. Apparently he wanted that part of the tables to himself and wanted her to move. Since he was using the rack, but she was already there folding her clothes and standing by it, he boldly picked up her basket it and flung it down the table. When she moved it back he got in her face about it and accused her of being unable to share public space and “guarding” her spot. To better understand, see below:

The pink person is my mother, the blue is the guy. The purple piles are her laundry and the green squares her baskets. As you can see, he has plenty of room to fold and can use the rack just fine. Regardless, he starts bitching at her to move and the basket that is directly in front of him, as you can see, is not in his way. Regardless, he picks it up and flings it down the table away from mom and accuses her of not being willing to share public spaces.

On top of all of that, when she retrieved her basket and set it back where it was, her arm brushed the shirts that were on the hanging rack. Then he started screaming at her not to touch his stuff and that she has no right to touch his belongings. So what right did he have to grab her basket that was not in his way and just fling it? If it annoyed him so badly he could have asked her to move it, although truthfully, it wasn’t even in his way since it was on the other table to boot.

Can you say asshole?

Turns out he’s a professor, he even went as far as to tell her that she had better not sign up for any of his classes. Like she would want to!