potty talk

ok, as per the requests of jen and amanda, i’m moving on from the pet peeves to something new.  this post has been brewing in my drafts for a few weeks and it seems too perfect to pull out for these particular girls.

as every good mother should, my mom taught me that there are certain topics of conversation that are inappropriate at the dinner table.  matters of the  bathroom was one of those topics.  so, if you happen to be at the dinner table, or whatever your 2009 version of that is, i’d suggest you skip this post and save it for another time.

🙂

that said, if you’re anywhere else, read on…

joy and i were chillin out max at starbucks the other weekend, reading, chatting, and waiting for one of her friends.  since i’m always double-fisted when i’m there, balancing my coffee intake with water, it never fails that i have to use the bathroom at least once per visit.

when i got settled into this bathroom, the whole toilet wobbled.  ugh.  i hate when this happens.  i know it’s because the stinkin thing isn’t sealed correctly however it makes me feel like a whale and fear falling off or, even worse, in.  of course a whale couldn’t fit in the toilet, so that one’s completely irrational.  😉

lest you should think i’m going back to pet peeves, it was there, wobbling as i went, that i thought 1–i need to share this with my online friends and 2–heck, there are other bathroom things i’ve noticed as of recent that i could share as well and make a whole post out of it!

two things:

1. as a girl, i feel the normal pangs of frustration and inconvenience when i go to the bathroom and find the seat up.  this sort of thing begins at a young age when you don’t time things well since you’re still discovering your holding it capabilites and you have to go so bad you run in and sit down, completely unaware that your brother or dad didn’t put the seat down again until your little, pre-whale bum splashes into the excretion you’ve deposited below.  yuck?  absolutely.
so, while the female desire for the seat to be down may morph into the rationale that both genders actually use it while it’s down so returning it to the home position makes it (potentially) more useful, it all started because we didn’t want to sit in our pee.  can you blame us?
anywho…as of late, i’ve become less annoyed with the seat being up because i’ve found that in public restrooms, it often guarantees me a freshly cleaned potty.  such a thing is prized when the majority of the females using the potties i frequent daily have to stretch their legs to get on and off, leaving any and everything in their wake.

2. i’m a recycler; it’s true.  i have a pretty solid reputation for being one of the more recycling-conscience people among my circle of peers.  i’ve collected recycling from those who lacked at home pick-up, regualry take things home with me rather than throw them in the trash while i’m out, and have gone off-roading to make it to the recycling center that was blocked off by road construction.
other than tangible objects, i try to make good use of resources as well, like electricity and water.  it’s the latter that connects this passion to this post.
each flush of the toilet uses about 6 gallons of water.  considering that i drink a lot of water each day, those flushes can add up.  so, a while back…to start conserving a little water at home, i began to double flush.  i’d do this by asking joy, and a few other select friends, if they had to pee whenever i did.  if she said yes, i offered to share the flush.  if i got a “no” response, i’d hold it a little longer to wait for a better time for both of us.  after a little while, not only did joy begin to return the favor by asking me when she had to go, but i got to the point where i even doubled up on my own.  of course, this has caused me to start cleaning my toilets with more frequency but that can’t be a bad thing, right?

i don’t always remember to do this.  if you hear a yell from that bathroom, it most likely means i forgot.  and, i think it would be nice to invest in one of the double-flush toilets or maybe one of these (haha) but until then, every little flush counts!

and before you go and think that i’m gross, let me assure you that i’m not alone.  heck, there’s even a little saying to go with this sort of lifestyle: if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down. (i personally think that is gross but it makes me chuckle nonetheless.)

for your reading pleasure:
~why this is important in america
~treehugger.com gives some advice on how to jump on the non-flushing cool kids without scaring people
~and i just thought this conversation was funny

all that to say that now, when i enter a public restroom and find that the person before me forgot to flush, while i may still be completely disgusted by what they left behind, a part of my heart can’t help but leap for joy at the thought that we worked together to save some water and make the world a better place.