Dan has to do his laundry today. The last time he washed his clothes was almost two weeks ago. He hates doing laundry. It feels like a waste of time, but now he needs something to wear. It’s Thursday morning. This is a good time to get it done.

In his bedroom there’s a huge pile of dirty clothes. He puts them into a laundry basket, gets the detergent, and goes down to the laundry room in the basement of his apartment building.

Fortunately, there isn’t anyone using the machines. Sometimes Dan has to wait until another tenant is finished washing and drying clothes. He puts a load of dark clothes into the washer. These are mostly jeans, t-shirts, and shirts he wears to work. Then he goes back upstairs to do other things while the machine gets to work.

When he comes back down to the laundry room, someone else is there waiting to use the washing machine. It’s his neighbor, Suzanne.

"Hi Suzanne. How are you doing?" asks Dan.

"I’m fine. How are you?" Suzanne has a huge basket of clothes balanced on her hip. "It looks like we both have laundry to do."

Dan looks over at the pile of light clothes in his basket. He still has another load to do, but he likes Suzanne. In fact, he wants to ask her out on a date. Now is the time.

"You can go ahead of me," says Dan. "I’m not in a big hurry."

"Oh, that’s so nice of you. Thank-you." Suzanne flashes a big smile at Dan. She’s a beautiful young woman from Ukraine who has been in the United States for just six months. Dan notices her hair is pulled back into a pony tail, and she’s wearing a t-shirt.

Dan starts to empty the washer. "Let me just put this stuff in the dryer. I can do the rest later. I’m not that busy today. In fact, it’s my day off."

"Mine, too." Says Suzanne. "My only plans for the day are to do laundry and clean. I have a boring life."

Dan sees his opportunity. "Well, if you’re available for lunch today, I’d love to take you out. That would make your life more exciting today. We can go to the new place on Fourth Street.

"Oh, I’d love to do that." Could we make it a late lunch.? I really have a lot of laundry to finish."

"No problem," says Dan. After my load is finished drying, you can put your stuff in and we can go eat while your clothes are drying.

"That sounds like a good plan," says Suzanne. "But I always hang my laundry to dry. I just need to use the washer."

Dan goes back upstairs and thinks to himself he made a good decision to do his laundry today. Perhaps doing laundry is not such a big waste of time after all.

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Now you try it. Read the paragraphs above. If you have a microphone, you can record your voice.

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