The Dry Cleaners

I find I avoid gas stations in which I can't pay at the pump. Although its more convenient that's not the reason I prefer it. Given a choice I definitely choose not interacting - meaning I would much rather deal with a machine than a human.

I can't remember the last time I actually went into a bank. The fact I can do 99% of my banking through an ATM is absolutely liberating.

I hated dealing with bank tellers, the sideways glance when they see how much money you don't have in your account. I don't miss the judgement.

I only wish there was a way to eliminate interacting with a human at the dry cleaners. After trying several different places around my house the best and cheapest place is right up the street, but theres a lady who works there who always wants to talk about my clothes.

"You have a lot of shirts in dark colors," she said last week.

I wanted to tell her to shut up, but after the ugly incident in which I repeatedly insisted I had left a pair of jeans to be altered, just to find them at home later, I held my tongue.

I have varied the time I go, hoping I'll miss her shift, but apparently she works there all the time, as every time I go, at any hour, on any day, there she is- with something stupid to say about my sweaters.

In truth, I'm basically drained by most people so I am certainly not the arbiter of appropriate conversation on most levels, yet it does seem as though some of her comments are over the line.

Once I took in a few of maternity clothes of Gioconda's when she was pregnant with the girls.

"Is someone you live with going to have a baby?," she asked.

It made me furious for a minute.

"Yes," I answered. Before she could ask who, I told her I needed to pick up the clothes by the end of the week and fled.

What I am hoping to live to see is a world in which transactions of every kind are conducted with assistance of high functioning robots.