Saturday, April 20, 2013

Appreciation of the porcelain throne

Let’s talk about toilets. I know what you’re thinking because if I were you, I’d be thinking the same thing: “Please, Damara, it is a pleasant Saturday morning and I’m having breakfast. Why do you have to go and ruin it by discussing this subject?”

If it makes you feel any better, I’ve already eaten and I’m at work right now most likely dealing with something more disgusting than a toilet. If that doesn’t help, I suppose I’ll go ahead and apologize in advance for the rest of this article.

I want to begin by thanking the people who continually improve and advance indoor plumbing. I love the fact that I can use my own private facilities daily in my home and I don’t have to go outside and maintain some type of disgusting, ill-maintained hole. I remember how much I slacked on a cat’s litter box so I shudder to think what I’d do with a backyard waste maintenance program.

I also enjoy that I can go pretty much anywhere in the United States and find a restroom. It may not be a fine specimen of a restroom, but it is often serviceable to a minimal degree.

When I was a kid, I had a friend who used scare tactics to divert me from my dreams of taking a trip to France. “Do you know how they go to the bathroom in France? In a hole in the ground! The men and women do it! They stand there and just go in the hole!”

This terrified me because I was that kid who never went number 2 away from home. In fact, I didn’t go number 2 in a public restroom until I was 23 years old. The day I was told that information about France is the day I crossed Europe off my travel list. If they couldn’t retro-fit their public facilities to accommodate shy American colons, then I didn’t feel comfortable traveling there.

I’m happy to say that Europe is back on my bucket list so don’t worry France, I promise I’m going to try ordering coffee and asking how much a pair of sunglasses cost in the worst, broken French one of these days.

Last week was the 12 hours of Sebring which I try to attend each year. My husband, Chris, and I decided to stay in our tent on Friday night because it wasn’t going to be as cold as Thursday night. Boy was it still cold!

Chris escorted me to the nearest bathroom and I chose the one stall without toilet paper. Wonderful.

After getting in the tent and bundling up, my nose was the only part of my body I couldn’t keep under the covers. It was like having the tip of a popsicle stuck on my face.

Around 5 in the morning, Chris was snuggling closer to me for warmth, but my bladder was a bit too full and there was no way I was venturing out into the tundra. My mind told me it couldn’t be less than 50 degrees, but my body said it felt like 20 and my backside was convinced the toilet seat would feel like a block of ice chiseled from the edge of a glacier.

Because of that adventure, we will not be staying in a tent next year. There’s just something special about your own bed and even more so about being in the proximity of your own toilet. I know I’ve been appreciating mine a little extra.

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