Friday, August 22, 2008

Happy hours, golden showers

Yesterday the power went out and our side of campus was affected. Luckily, the back up generator kicked on and all the necessary equipment was still powered, as were the emergency lights in the halls. However, it was still quite dark. As I walked through a dimly lit hallway, one of the post-docs saw me and asked, "What did you do?"

"I flexed."

As luck would have it, I really needed to pee, but apparently bathrooms are not considered to be emergency areas. It was pitch black with a sign on the door saying the bathroom was out of order. I ignored the sign and went in anyway. The door was propped open, so a little bit of light came in from the hallway, which was nice, but presented me with a problem. Should I pee in a urinal I could see, knowing full well that anyone could see me from the hallway? Or should I pee in a urinal I couldn't see, knowing that I'd be safely out of view, but would also be running the risk of missing the urinal?

I suppose now would be an appropriate (?) time to let you in on a little secret. I have stage fright. I'm unable to pee if there is someone standing near me. I don't know why this is, but I blame one of my brother's old college roommates (the red-headed guy in this story). I figured my stage fright might manifest itself in this situation, knowing the door behind me was open might prevent me from accomplishing the task at hand, so I opted for peeing in the dark.

You'll be happy to know that I emerged from the darkened bathroom with dry feet.

9 comments:

Dee Ice Hole said...

WHEW---I was worried there for a while---then I wondered if the floor was also dry.

Jenny said...

Brave boy.

silentkid said...

I suffer from stage fright as well. Broken urethras suck.

steph said...

you know what is so weird to me? that guys in general seem to have the stage fright thing way more tha girls. why is this? maybe because we girls start early all going to the bathroom together and just get used to it and not care? i think it is so funny! but i am happy you were able to emerge unscathed from your dark bathroom experience!

Anonymous said...

Too bad you didn't have a friend to sword-fight with in the dark...that would have been challenging. Ryan

Bill From Gainesville said...

Dark peeing is not for the faint of heart. Its kind of like flying an F-16 --- you should start learning to fly in a cessna and work your way up to F-16's and stuff just like you should only Pee in the dark after you have mastered the shake and zip and aim parts ... its a process

2 Dollar Productions said...

This is a dilema and I also hate to piss right next to some stranger in the men's room. I think the flush comes in handy in this case, but anyway, your choice paid off with dry feet and I'm glad the title of the post wasn't completely indicative of the story to follow.

Karen said...

Now I know why men find it so weird that women always go to the bathroom together. I had no idea there was an etiquette to men's toileting habits, in fact I thought men were quite happy to just get it out and go anywhere. You never stop learning do you?

Anonymous said...

this is when the light of a cell phone comes in handy...

but congrats, just the same.