Bathroom Notes

There is a metal box in old-style women’s bathrooms. It’s for used sanitary pads. It is often attached to the stall wall, next to the toilet paper dispenser.

The metal box in the women’s bathroom at the small mall near our house has two labels (from a real label maker) stuck on it:

Please use bags to dispose of pads

and below, a helpful addendum:

Place pad in bag and then place bag in box

But there are no bags in the bathroom stall.

However, the bathroom itself is surprisingly lovely. Spacious – easily 10 stalls – and clean, with real sink taps that turn on and off and release hot water and cold and, best of all, have written on them “hot” and “cold.”

It has become a special hatred of mine, public bathrooms with only cold water taps that only stay on for 5 seconds at a time. Especially those public bathrooms that post signs accusing me of being a filthy germ-bringer. Yes, after using your moist, unkempt facilities, Metrotown, I would love to wash my hands for the full, recommended 20 seconds but not in icy cold water and not if I have to keep taking my hands out of the germ-killing water to turn the tap back on, thus re-contaminating myself. Usually I don’t worry very much about germs but if everyone who uses the bathroom at Waterfront Centre does a quick swish under the cold tap and then hits the paper towel dispenser with their wet hands, well, I’m predicting mass germ transfer and there are a lot of cruise ship patrons strolling through that building.

Maybe I should start carrying my own label maker.

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