Laundry and "Family" Buildings

When I lived in Manhattan my building was mostly comprised of single people. We had a miserable little laundry room in the far reaches of the basement -- two old, clunky washers and one dryer. I would sometimes stay up late at night just to use these "facilities" without having to fight with someone over it. If I had a day off during the week laundry was always the first thing on the agenda. Blissfully, I could pretty much count on having everything to myself. Now that I live in Queens I have a much better laundry room. Slipping in to throw a load into the wash is rarely a problem at all. Although, interestingly, the weekends tend to be very quiet in the laundry room, yet the weekdays (especially mornings and afternoons) are completely crazy. I have today off and since I put off doing my laundry all weekend long (for no good reason), I figured that I would do it today. Well, the facilities were packed. I never knew there were so many people home during the day around here. I've noticed the laundry situation on other weekdays that I've been home too. Interesting how the demographics of a building can change these dynamics. The other strange thing is, I run into people in the laundry and in the elevator and in the halls whom I have never, ever even seen before. Okay, maybe one or two could be a cleaning lady or a nanny, but I was just on the elevator with some woman who was wearing a royal blue velour housecoat. Never seen her before. Ever. It's like the people who live here live in strange shifts or something. You throw your schedule off a little bit and you run into other people you never knew existed. Like they're living on the swing shift or something.