Monday, February 13, 2006

Doomed Post??

Since graduating from college I've had 3 jobs. Durring my tenure at each of my two past jobs I have in some way written about the bathroom, and then in the next few months my position has been eliminated. In my current job i don't technically have a position to eliminate so maybe this will push them to create one for me.

So here we go.

In the office where I work, to get to the bathroom, we (both men and women) are forced to walk past the Coffee Room. It's just a tiny room with a coffee pot some cupboards and a sink; and yet, while it serves it's purpose of providing coffee to those who choose to drink it, it has another effect as well. A constant smell of old wet coffee grounds permeates the entire area around the bathroom doors. It reminds me of what it smells like if you dump your coffee grounds into a trashbag, then tie it closed, then two days later open it and stick your head inside.

I can bear the smell. Seriously, it's not all that bad. However I'm afraid it's going to eventually cause some sort of Pavlovian response where anytime I smell old coffee I'm gonna have to pee. I'm more concerned about this everytime I walk past there. I've started holding my breath, just to keep it from being engrained in my head tying urination and old coffee together. Sure right now you might think this silly but imagine the possibilities.

  • Weeks from now while driving around the back of Starbucks, I feel a strange pressure on my bladder.

  • Months from now while in Barnes and Noble, in the midst of ordering my usual Carmel Vanilla Mocha Frappaccino I strangely have to run to the back of the store to the restroom to relieve myself.

  • Years from now while taking out the trash, the bag breaks spilling (among other things) coffee grounds on the driveway I unexplicably wet myself.


I cant deal with those consequences. Maybe I'll just go upstairs and use the bathroom that has heat.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

so this is probably the first post worthy of commenting on for several months now, so i can't pass up the chance. I agree, with the whole coffee thing, though at my work it is a box of breathing masks that sits by the door of the bathroom. you ask yourself why breathing masks are by the bathroom door (or maybe you don't), but we use them in the laboratory, and the door happens to be next to the bathroom. You have forced me to wonder if I will begin to associate my breathing mask with going to the bathroom. You see I handle rats in the laboratory, and they are always peeing all over the place (perhaps they are conditioned already) when they see us with our masks on. And, as we use them to prove what might happen in humans... i don't know, but i do know where you are coming from.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the ijl article. very amusing.

valentine's day is a HUGE holiday for them. i am so glad to not be there anymore.

i posted about my pavlovian urniary response to copy machines... not sure if you were still on xanga at that time, and i don't really have time to browse through my old posts and find it to link to you so... there ya go...

good post.

Anonymous said...

carAmel. there are two a's.

now that that is out of the way...the image of old-man kyle in a plaid shirt and sweater vest shuffling down the driveway and wetting himself...um, yeah, that was WICKED funny...and then you'd go up to the house and little wifey would say, 'oh kyle, not again!'

think of the commercial possibilities...men's depends. or the new hefty trashbags...

hernan43 said...

A nice website about public restrooms.

http://therestroom.blogspot.com/