The Forgotten Sheets

I had to wash Rachel's favorite blankey yesterday. My mom took her for a walk in the stroller and the blankey ended up trailing on the ground a bit. I can't tell you how many times I've done that!

She went to bed with it that night because I wasn't home to take it away from her. She's rather difficult to get to go to bed without the blankey, and since Andrew was putting her to bed it was worth it to let her keep the blankey, however soiled it was.

I took it away from her first thing in the morning, though, right after her wake-up cuddles.

Having just finished my laundry run for the week a few days before, I was wondering what else to wash. I couldn't rationalize washing only her blanket, but was having trouble thinking of enough dirty items to constitute a full load.

I settled on the bed sheets. They hadn't been washed in over a week, so it was probably about time. I threw in our swimsuits and towels, started the load, and called it good.

Then the day caught up with me. We had the optometrist appointment, and then the library picnic, and then I had a primary meeting. Before we left, I gave Rachel her damp blanket so that it could dry in the car. She was happy to have it during the car rides between appointments.

I didn't get home from my primary meeting until around 9 PM, and then I started working right away. I worked until midnight. And then it was time for bed.

Andrew and I stumbled, sleepy-eyed, into the bathroom. I noticed our bed all torn apart on our way there.

"Oh, dear!" I said, "I forgot about the sheets!"

"Huh?" said Andrew groggily.

"They're still in the washing machine!"

It was too late to put them in the dryer, and we were too tired to hunt around for our other set of sheets.

"We could just sleep on the bed how it is," suggested Andrew.

As gross as that sounds, that's what we did. We slept on our mattress cover under our quilt cover. I hadn't washed the pillow cases, so those were at least still on.

It was acutally the best night's sleep I've had in a long time!

When we woke up in the morning, I immediately went to the washer to put the sheets in the dryer, but the washing machine was empty. I opened the dryer and found the sheets, the towels, and everything else completely dry.

"Did you get up and put the sheets in the dryer before I got up?" I asked Andrew.

"No," he answered, "You mean the sheets were dry the whole time?"

The sheets were dry the whole time, waiting patiently to be put back on the bed and we chose to sleep on a sheetless bed. Oh, the irony!