Milk on My Tie

Many of the ties that I have were gifts from students in the past. One of my favorite ties is a plain, dark tan colored one. I picked it out all by myself. I could even tell, all by myself, that it would go with a black shirt. It’s the one I’m wearing in my picture on my webpage.

I have taken my dress shirts to the cleaners for decades. It’s a $1.35 each. I can wash something just fine. I know how to use the iron; it just takes me so darn long to iron something that $1.35 per shirt seems like a very good trade.

At our home in Mukilteo there was a local cleaner to whom I took my shirts. I got to know the family that owned it and enjoyed brief visits with them each time I came in. When we built our new home it was too far to drive to the old cleaner so I tried a new one. The owner is pleasant and our clothes get clean. I say hello, she says hello back. I ask how she is doing. She says fine and asks how I’m doing. I say fine. I ask if she is enjoying the Olympics or the sunny weather or whatever. She smiles and doesn’t answer. She speaks very little English. The radio plays in Korean and she speaks on the phone in Korean.

Once during the summer when I was dropping off some shirts I had asked her a simple conversational question. She smiled and said, “I no understand much.” I said, “That’s okay; your English is a whole lot better than my Korean.” She pointed to her ear and said, “People talk, I nothing.” I asked her early on what her name is. She wrote said it and wrote it on a piece of paper for me. It’s Jae Sook.

It frustrates me to not be able to visit with people. Just even simple things. I even thought about going to a different cleaner just so we could understand each other. I always say hello when I come in, I call her by name, I say thank you and have a good day when I leave. And the clothes are always clean.

That tan tie that I picked out all by myself has been to the cleaners more times than all of my other ties put together. The darn thing is a magnet for me spilling stuff on it. I’m not sure if it’s my fault or the tie’s fault. This past Monday I dropped off my shirts. On Tuesday I wore my tan tie. I even thought when I put it on, DON’T spill anything on it. I was eating lunch at the office. And then it happened. I spilled milk on my cool tie. I thought I need to start wearing a bib or something when I have this tie on.

On the way home I thought I would drop off the tie. Rather than take it off and set it on the counter I decided to walk in, throw my hands up in frustration and just look at her. There was so much milk on the tie you could see the stain from across the street. I had a jacket on so the milk stained part of the tie wasn’t visible. I held my palms up for a bit and then just looked down at my jacket. I pulled the tie out and just looked at it. She laughed.

Laughing in Korean sounds just exactly like laughing in English. We communicated.

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally.

P