I wanted to reach out and smack him.

No jury in the world would've convicted you.

Bathrooms should be temples of silence. The business to be conducted is of a highly personal nature and unless you're talking to yourself, there's really no room for discussion.

But at home I don't mind it so much either.

I think because we all try to pretend we go in to wash our hands.

The worst communal bathrooms are the military style ones with a line of toilets and no stalls whatsoever. You occasionally find them in older locker rooms.

Hi, how ya doin?

I mind it at home, too. Of course, I live alone, so mostly what I mean is I mind it when my mother comes into the bathroom to talk to me while I'm peeing at her house.

Silence gives me the illusion of privacy. I would prefer to never have to use a bathroom that wasn't mine, really.

My elementary school had a big, round, communal concrete sink in the boy's room. There was a bar around the base you stepped on, and metal mushroom shaped thing in the middle that spritzed water like a lawn sprinkler.

They have these at Cal Expo. I think. Maybe Shorline. Somewhere where I used to go to a lot of concerts, anyway.

so mostly what I mean is I mind it when my mother comes into the bathroom to talk to me while I'm peeing at her house.

Is there no lock on the door?

I always love freaking out new male co-workers by telling them about the couch in the ladies room. They don't have one theirs. Between that, and the fancy lounges in department store ladies rooms, I think that women have it pretty good, bathroom-wise.

Even worse was when I was the first in my 5th-grade class to get her period, and had to deal with pads, etc., in full view of anyone else in that bathroom.

Oh, Kathy. I hear you. My 5th-grade classroom didn't have a bathroom. I had to stand in front of the entire class and request a pass to go to the main building. Imagine how that went over with a bunch of cruel ten-year-olds.

(The memories of having my teacher notice that I bled through my light-colored pants, the female classmate who liked to drive-by pinch my boobs, being mistaken for a teacher in 4th-grade, though, those are everlasting. Yay.)

I wasn't ever mistaken for a teacher, for I am short, but... dear god, Kathy, you're freaking me out here with the I-am-you and you-is-me stuff.

I would prefer to never have to use a bathroom that wasn't mine, really.

There you go. I have family members that go to insane (and accident-risking) extremes to avoid using public bathrooms. I'm not that bad, but yeah, the pretense of not being around people I wouldn't let use my bathroom is very important to me.

In other news, part of my shiner is lighter than my current facial skin tone. It's very distracting when I catch a glimpse of my reflection (say, in the washroom), but now I understand the "that golden nugget under your eye" comment that was tossed at me yesterday.