By Allison Owen I've known how to do my own laundry for a few years, but my mom is the one who mostly does our laundry at my house. Once I found out that I'd be marching corps, though, I started to do my own at home to prepare myself for the laundry days of the summer.

Our first laundry day was in Wichita Falls, Texas, on June 24. There were quite a few people who were nervous to wash their clothes -- since they weren't sure how their clothes would turn out. Luckily I kept a notebook all summer of random things that happened, and the first laundry day happened to be a day when I recorded a lot of random events.

Laundry day in Texas.
The first bus was set to leave at a certain time, so if you wanted to get to the Laundromat first you had to hurry and get on the first bus. Everyone who got on sat as close to the front as they could -- of course! If you know anything about corps going to Laundromats, you know that the closer you are to the front, the sooner you get off the bus and the better chances you have to get a machine. My friend Kate and I were going to wash our clothes together. Kristin, our guard tech, had given me a bag of her detergent so we didn't have to buy any. I had my roll of quarters, so we picked out a washing machine. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, but we put the clothes in with the detergent and then put the money in. We didn't really know what would happen -- but oh well. "Whose Line is it Anyway" was on the TV there and some people were watching it. A lot of the drummers were hacking and others ran for the Coke and snack machines. I gave Kate some quarters and she took off for her Coke. If you know Kate, you know she loves her Coca-Cola Classic. While our clothes were being washed we talked and Sam, Brittany and Amanda joined us at some points. So did some of the guys at times -- overall we were just hanging out. Kate and I couldn't tell if the machine was done or not, but when it finally was we moved our clothes to a dryer and began that slow process. It took around 20 minutes and when we had finished we began to separate and fold our clothes. It took us 46 minutes exactly. I think we finished first out of everyone. After the majority of us had finished our laundry, we got back on the bus and Stan, the driver, dropped us off in a grocery store parking lot so we could pick where we wanted to eat. I should also note that the guard had to carry a piece of equipment with us everywhere -- in case we had any free time to spin. I went to Fazoli's with Matt, Holly and Jonathan. The cashier was confused as to why I had a rifle, and once I explained he made me spin it. He was highly amused with dropspins. We talked the bread boy into coming to the show the following night and he seemed interested. This was also when I found out that Matt didn't like tarantulas. I had said something about how they had found one outside the staff room and he said he wasn't going to sleep that night. Eew spiders. Soon Amy, Pete and another Matt joined us and sat at the table by ours. Amy wouldn't eat her cheese pizza because it had touched a pepperoni -- she's a vegetarian -- so we then tried to explain to her that that technically wasn't meat. I don't know how it happened, but somehow Jonathan told her to imagine a pig with no legs squirming around on her plate. We all died laughing; it was incredibly hilarious. I guess you had to be there. Then we went to Hastings. It was my first time being in one, so I just randomly walked around. Amy and I did tosses and other rifle things in the back at one point and we got some interesting looks from shoppers. There was an ad for the corps show on a bulletin board by the door, too; that was cool. After the interesting time in Hastings we all went our separate ways. Amy and Pete went to buy water, because the Wichita Falls water was NASTY. If I had to pick the worst water of the summer I think Wichita Falls would win. Jonathan and I went back to the grocery store parking lot to see who was hanging around. Jeremy, Jordan and Camaron threw these popper things at us. We all sat around for a while waiting for the bus. Then once it did come we had to wait for the staff to come. Once we got back to the school we had like an hour to do nothing. All of the sudden everyone was filled with insane energy and started playing basketball and volleyball. It was crazy. I don't know where all their energy came from. And that was our first laundry day of the summer.