The Office Bathroom

At work, there is a bathroom in the main office that the female employees in the building use. It is a small bathroom; just two side by side stalls, two side by side sinks, a trash can, and a fulll length mirror on the wall. I am not one for public bathrooms, but this bathroom is nice enough, and I know the majority of the women who use it. However, this bathroom is also quite a source of awkwardness for me. I find myself either feeling self conscious in this bathroom or unsure of the proper bathroom etiquette. For example, if a coworker and I are having a conversation, and we enter into the bathroom together, once we are in our side by side stalls, I never know whether I should continue the conversation. Should I keep on talking like we are in a car or an elevator, or should I wait until we are both done with our business? What if one of us finishes before the other? Should I wait on her?

Then there are the times when I enter the bathroom and one of the stalls is already occupied. An awkward silence falls between the two of us as we sit, inches apart, yet we are not speaking. I feel like I should introduce myself as I enter in, such as "Hi, it's Deb over here." Then maybe we could carry on a conversation.

This is the worst - the person in the other stall does not want to be identified. Maybe she is self conscious about using the restroom in public. Maybe she has more in depth business than I do and she needs her privacy. For whatever reason, she is outwaiting me in the other stall. I haven't heard a peep from the other side, and I'm in and out, washing my hands, and still no movement, not even a drop.

Once my boss and I entered at the same time. I really needed to discuss something with her, and it seemed ridiculous not to take advantage of the few moments we had together. But it just didn't seem right conversing at that time.

Sometimes if I am in a competitive mood, I have two different competitions - who can go longest, or if I can beat the other person out - especially if she was in there before me.

Then there's the time when I see the person exit the other stall and I notice that the handwashing did not occur. I always make sure if I am doing the handwashing at the same time as the other person that I wash extra thoroughly. We have this really cool motion sensor soap dispenser, except for today when I couldn't get it to pick up my motion. Don't you hate it when you are in a public restroom and either the soap or the water is motion sensored and you can't get it to work? Sometimes I can't even figure out where to motion to get the water to come out.

And the full length mirror - for some reason there is that temptation to study myself before I enter back into the real world. I'm not sure what I am looking for. But it is quite embarrasing when I am staring at myself when the door opens and in walks a coworker.

Though the bathroom does produce some awkward moments for me, I try not to get too hung up on it - I need to just go with the flow.

The Phenomenon of the School Closing

We are on the tail end of a two day school closing due to "inclement weather," and as this little unplanned mini vacation comes to an end, I would like to map out the vicious cycle that occurs when such a situation occurs.

The craze began Monday at work as the rumors started to fly. "Did you hear about all of the snow we are supposed to get? I heard up to 16 inches!" "Do you think we will have a delay or be closed tomorrow?" The staff was working itself into a giddy frenzy as the possibility loomed that we may not have to report to work the next day. This is so interesting, because don't we all love our jobs? I am one that doesn't buy into the weather rumors; in fact, I find them rather amusing. But by mid-afternoon, I gave in and called a couple of my appointments scheduled for the next day and let them know that in case of a school closing, we would have to reschedule our appointment. By the time I was heading home, I was starting to feel a little excitement myself.

After watching the news when I got home, I decided that I should probably make a trip to the store to stock up on some essentials. I had heard the horror stories at work about how the parking lot at Wal-Mart looked like the day before Christmas, so I headed to Lances instead. Sure, I may pay a little more, but the convenience was worth it. Apparently, several other people had already decided to avoid Wal-Mart and hit Lances, because I couldn't find any bread, and the only gallons of milk left were fat free skim and vitamin D. I grabbed the last vitamin D (yuk!) I couldn't bring myself to pay $2.00 for a half gallon of 1%.

I headed home, locked the door behind me, and the family settled down for a nice cozy winter storm. There was almost a calm, serene feeling about what may take place. Barring our power going out, we had all that we needed to enjoy this little break from reality and spend some quality family time together. We even had bought (actually gotten for free with coupon) some Nestle hot cocoa, and Elizabeth was excited to put some Reddi-whip and chocolate chips on top to make a nice winter treat.

Though Marion did not announce a delay or closing Monday evening, I let the girls stay up a little later, and I stayed up until almost midnight playing Pengapop. I was really banking on the prediction that this snowstorm was going to happen. When I went to bed, I had my phone tree sheet by the bedside, and Jason and I worked out a surefire plan to quickly call everyone. I would get the call from Michelle, then he would hand me the phone, flip on the nightlight, I would call my phone tree person, the babysitter, and my intern, and within seconds we would be back to sleep. In anticipation, I didn't sleep well, and when I did sleep, I dreamed scenarios that involved getting "the call." Thankfully, at 5:30 the call came in, and as planned the night before, I made my three calls quickly. However, the adrenaline rush that went through me after receiving the call kept me up an extra hour. I felt like a high school kid again, receiving a cancellation call on the day of a big test. This is ridiculous - you would think I dread going to my job.

I got out of bed around 9:30, excited for a day of relaxation, a day of catching up the laundry and doing a few little projects (if I felt like it,) and most importantly a day of spending time with the kids and Jason (who closed his office.) And what a day it was. The laundry was caught up. We played Clue until Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Rev. Green, Mrs. White, and Professor Plum were all the murderers. We played Jenga. We played even more Pengapop. We watched all of our taped crime shows. We watched the weather, sports center, ESPN classic, more weather, and as the snow fell, we realized we may be looking at another day inside.

Yesterday evening, however, was not quite so serene. The kids were still wanting to play games, and we wanted to relax. However, we had relaxed so much during the day, that we didn't know what we could do that would make us relax. TV watching became boring. The computer was mundane. I actually got out Happy Feet, a playstation game Anna had received for her birthday, and the four of us sat for 3 hours while I played the entire game. It actually is a very fun game - if you have a dance mat for DDR, you can use it for this game. But I digress.

By this time we had received word that there was no school for Wednesday, and after the kids went to bed, Jason and I looked at each other wondering if we could survive another day of games, dolls, trains, and t.v. (I mean relaxation.)

Today rolled around, and after a good night's sleep, we are ready for another day of family bonding. Jason and I now are anxiously awaiting tomorrow when we can get back to normal, get out of the house, take a shower and put on real clothes, and go back to work! It's a vicious cycle, isn't it? Two days ago I was anxiously awaiting the possibility of a cancellation and a chance to relax and enjoy some family bonding time. Today I am anxiously awaiting the chance to get back to normal, out of the house, and back to work. Two weeks from now, we will be anxiously awaiting another delay or cancellation to relax and enjoy some family bonding time!