Tuesday, June 28, 2016

May Buddha Bless Those Bathrooms

Got done with the project today.  It was dicey.  Thought going into today we wouldn't make it tomorrow, then there was possibility that we would, but my immediate supervisor would rather us not and just stay a little later instead, then the entire room sped up even though I was doing my best to drag things out, but then the extra time we needed to spend was only a half-hour, and actually less so.  Was stressed because I haven't blogged about this yet, but I found a library close to work, so I can do this and then get on the road to the gym (I'm not eating at home tonight -- too fat) after the traffic's died down.  Thank you, Wa-ze!

I'll worry about getting on the dole tomorrow; something tells me I'll have to do a lot of research and putting in information I know I've entered on the website before.  And now I have to worry about my parents finding out.  But if I'm out of work for a month, I need some fucking money.

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Anyway, before this project is totally in the rearview mirror, I want to give a shout-out to the bathrooms in the place I worked at.  This building we're in is not the one from last year.  We were in an entirely new one about three blocks to the west.  It's in a building occupied by an ink toner company, but we are using space that's not occupied.  In fact, we are using space that seems to be big enough for a few companies.  While walking around I saw desks and cubicles and offices with their doors closed and doorways with doors removed.  It looks as though we occupied a couple, if not a few, areas that formerly housed companies that either moved or failed.

We had so much room to roam that finding a bathroom all to yourself was not a problem.  If we went far enough back from our room (far enough back to believe that we entered what would have been a separate company's space) we would find a restroom.  I used that a lot if I just wanted to pee.  I liked it because it was way, way back there, just like we were in the back of the room.  In fact, I don't think many people in the front of the room knew there was a bathroom in the back.  That meant a lot fewer people used it, so when I needed to go, I was nearly always the only one there.  It felt like my own private bathroom, or the one that only a select few of us used.

However, there was another one that was even more private, which cut down the even remote possibility I would run into someone in the same room as I.  The luxury of being in a multi-company office building are the common bathrooms.  And there was one very close to the front door.  From my room, you would have to walk out, past all the desks, down the hallway where the break room was, over the river and through the woods, then down stairs to where the ink toner company's cubicles were.  That is where the bathroom I really liked was.

With one exception, I didn't run into anybody from the room using it the same time as I.  Only a few times did I use it the same time as anybody, period.  Those people with whom I used the potty may have been wondering who I was, and it's possible they may have complained about these interlopers with their IDs using "their" bathroom.  But most of the time, I was using it by myself, the whole time.

So for most of the three-plus weeks of the project, about 45 minutes before Morning Break, Lunch, Afternoon Break and before leaving for the day, I would get up and walk all the way down to that particular bathroom.  And with two exceptions, I would see that not only was there no one else there, I would see the door to the handicapped stall (there were two stalls) wide open.  It was like a hug that was inviting me in.  And I would always say yes, sometimes to take a crap, sometimes to just pee and think by my lonesome.  Seriously, that was one of the mental breaks that made this project so enjoyable.  (Well, that and the fact that the room boss did not make a stink about going to that bathroom so often, unlike the previous project.  I admit that I think she could've run a tighter ship, but I have to be so thankful that she didn't give a darn about me disappearing for 15 minutes four times a day.)

But that is gone because the project is done.  And in fact, the building is "done," too.  They are removing everything at the end of the month.  Guess they were only renting the place.  Too bad -- I liked the place, and it was much closer to home.  I'll miss getting there in 45 minutes and being back after an hour, as long as that sounds.

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