Say you're in a public restroom at a place known for such amenities -- for our purposes, let's say Starbucks, perhaps a high-traffic one on a high-traffic street like, say, 14th Street. And after making your way through a long Sunday line of men, you enter the bathroom, plug your nose, flip the toilet seat back down with the very edge of your boot toe, turn to assume position, and see that there is no toilet paper, nor paper product of any kind, to be found in the room.
Fortunately, you have reached an age where you walk around prepared for such occasions, with a little pocket pack of Duane Reade tissues in your bag, (shoved amongst an array of sticky cough drops, lipstick ends, linty band-aids, last year's ATM receipts, and other assorted necessities). So you do your best, and then begin thinking of the poor girl waiting in line behind you. She seems young, probably not yet of the age at which one thinks to carry tissues in her purse (or sleeve). Do you doom this poor innocent to a TP-less visit following yours? Or, when exiting the facility and handing the door off to her, do you discreetly, maternally, offer her a tissue from your Duane Reade pack?
Yesterday, I did the latter. And paid for it by being made fun of by my male companion, waiting outside the door for me. "It just seems like a rather intimate exchange, for two people who don't know each other," he commented. He didn't seem convinced by my argument that it seemed the right thing to do, nor the one about how it's a "girl thing." Don't most girls carry tissues? he asked.
The discussion continued all the way to Union Square until I finally hit upon an argument that resonated with him: "Well, if I hadn't offered," I said, "she would've thought I'd come unprepared and just dripped dry in there -- or worse! She would've thought I was a disgusting person." Ever keenly attuned to people's perceptions of one another, my companion finally conceded my point.
You're such a dear! From now on, you're entering all public bathrooms before me.
Posted by: Em | April 12, 2006 at 04:01 PM