We all know sitting in the loo can get a bit boring, but fortunately there are ways to pass the time there as well - especially in public toilets. From what I've gathered, the matter is much more straight-forward (and quicker!) for boys, so this post will be unashamedly sexist. So, girls, if you decide to skip the girls' queue for fear of bursting and sneak into the men's instead, you can always rant at them for being such a messy, filthy bunch and make small talk about not looking at their penises. Ahem. If you, however, decide to queue with the rest of your gender, there is something about nightclub bathrooms that just begs you to engage in discussions about relationships, politics, or the superiority of the Mooncup while you're trying not to poke your eye out with a mascara wand. There's a certain vulnerability the toilet brings out in people, a certain kind of intimacy that (along with that third tequila shot) makes you want to tell "your girls" (including people you've never met before) all about your last bastardly boyfriend. I think nightclubs are clueing into this, and that's why many of them have sofas in their bathrooms. Oh, the conversations had on some of those sofas.
You don't have to be sloshed to participate in some toilet philosophy, though. The photo above is from a uni campus. The text inside the heart says "Academic Toilet Forum", which pretty much sums it all up. At my campus, there are differently themed bathroom stalls: one deals with religion, a few with relationships, a couple with animals rights, etc. Perhaps sadly enough, it's no exaggeration to say those conversations in bathroom scribbles have saved if not lives, at least relationships and self-esteems. "Oh, so I'm not the only 25-year-old virgin!" "I always thought I was the only one with huge labia!" "Hang in there, you'll find someone worth your while yet!" "Do not shag Professor X, he's an arrogant moron!" There is something about those white walls that allows people who usually feel repressed by the norms and fears of coming across ignorant or pathetic so prevalent in academia to come out and voice their insecurities. Sometimes it's amusing, sometimes it's beautiful, sometimes it's heart-breaking.
The uni lets the texts spread across the space until the autumn comes and they paint the walls white for new students and new questions.
4 comments:
*low laughter*
At first, I was concerned that you were saying one of your favorite things was actual conversations -- as in, when people conduct cell phone conversations while in public bathrooms. People in my office building do this on an alarmingly regular basis, and it is emphatically one of my _least_ favorite things. Seriously, people? That inane conversation cannot wait for three minutes? Really?
But then I saw what you were actually talking about, and that made me smile. I carry around dry-erase markers with me sometimes, and write anonymous sweet things on the mirrors in public bathrooms.
Your site makes me smile big, doll.
Warm thoughts to you...
That is wonderful in so many ways! I rarely have courage to join in on the conversations. One bar where I used to live had a blackboard in their bathroom, and I would scribble thoughts on that and wonder if anyone'd notice or care. (In a way, I guess this blog is very similar.)
I read some of your blog, and it didn't make me smile, but it did make me feel. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Warm thoughts right back at you.
My deliberately smiley thoughts tend to go directly to the world. All of the jumbled chaos aside from that tends to end up on my website. Which, since I don't really write with the idea in mind that anyone is reading it -- meaning, I am not writing on purpose, or with direction, I'm just sort of throwing words around for myself, without planning or editing (that might be the problem right there...) -- I suppose I don't feel like I need to try to make it too smile-inducing. It is like a quiet conversation with myself in the middle of a crowded public place, in many ways. (I do get deliberately smiley on my Tumblr site, but that is only for the entertainment of one person in particular -- the only person who reads it, actually, I suspect.)
Though, the fact that other people do read my words sometimes makes me cringe, as I sometimes read what I have written and it just seems ridiculous and angst-filled and awful. *sigh*
I hope you have been having a sparkling and fizzy weekend...
Oi, no cringing! Blogs are a curious medium, a cross between a diary and a very public conversation, which is both the beauty and the horror of it, I guess. A lot of the time, I feel much freer to talk about my negative feelings on my blog than I do to my friends. Sad, perhaps, but there's such a (false) safety in the distance and anonymity whilst still speaking out in public to people rather than to walls. (Yes, I have another webjournal where I'm not adamantly happy all the time.)
The weekend was fizzy and sparkly to the extreme as May Day is traditionally celebrated with way too much bubbly here. It's good to be a drunken fool every now and then, though. Take care!
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