Iron

The other morning I decided to iron a shirt for work. Our director had declared it to be “Jeans Day” and I wanted to wear my denim shirt with my jeans. We don’t work in a place that has regular jeans days, though Fridays are business casual (khakis and golf shirts for men, whatever for women—they have more choices and consequently I can’t tell sometimes when they are being casual and when they’re not.)

Kathy came around the corner and glared at me. I said, “What? We won’t be late.” She just continued to glare without saying anything. Finally she went back to the kitchen to do her hair and such.

She was still mad when we left on time, I might add, but I knew why she was upset. She doesn’t like changes in the routine that might slow us down. We have to stop at McDonald’s for her large coffee and two creams in the coffee and two creams out, and sometimes we breeze through and sometimes there is a wait, depending upon who is working the window. If Karen is there, things go pretty smoothly. If anyone else is taking drive through orders, it’s a mess. There is a talent to multitasking at that window, and Karen’s got it.

On the way down to work, steam was still coming out of Kathy’s ears, so I made the best of it, telling her I understood what was bothering her. Later I got a voicemail from her apologizing. Imagine that.

Back to ironing. Yes, I can iron my own shirts. Excluding the denim one, there is only one other shirt I own that needs ironing. There are two that I finally decided to take to the dry cleaners and have them done there since they are such a pain to do. 100% cotton. Penney’s has wrinkle free 100% cotton shirts, so I bought a bunch of them and they work great. If I iron my own shirt, Kathy says, “I would have done that for you.” I know, but I hate to ask, after she’s been on her feet all day at work. If I do hint that I need a shirt done, there is some grumbling, so I guess I’d rather take the grousing when I do it myself than not.

So where do you stand on the issue of ironing? Does anyone ever do it anymore? How about McDonald’s coffee: best ever?