When you have to visit a public bathroom, you
usually find a line
of women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it's
your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is
occupied. Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly
knocking
down the woman leaving the stall. You get in to find the door won't
latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about
to wet your pants! The dispenser for the modern "seat covers"
(invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty.
You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there was one,
but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around
your
neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the
FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume "The Stance." In
this position your toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd
love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the
seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance." You reach
for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In
your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you
had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no
toilet paper!" You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose
on yesterday, the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the
purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to
strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do. You
crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than
your thumbnail.
Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't
work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck
in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward
against the tank of the toilet. "I'M IN ALREADY HERE!" you
say, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny,
crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing
altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT. It is
wet, of course.
You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare
bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on
the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper, not
that there was any, even if you had taken time to try.
You know that your mother would be utterly
appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom
never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You
just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get."
By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so
confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire
hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of
water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your
shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that
you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being
dragged in too. At this point you give up. You're soaked by the
spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're exhausted.
You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and
then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks.
You can't figure out how to operate the faucets
with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a
dry paper towel and walk past the line of women, still waiting. You
are no longer able to smile politely to them. A kind soul at the
very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing
from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the
paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her
warmly, "Here, you just might need this."
As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered,
used and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, "What
took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your
neck?"
This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public
restrooms (rest? you've got to be kidding!!).
It explains to the men what really does take us
so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about
why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can
hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the
door!










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