Five Routine Minutes: If I Knew, I’d Have Waited
Posted: February 13, 2013 Filed under: Five Minutes | Tags: art, cartoons, cleaning crew, comedy, drawing, humor, postaweek, work 32 Comments »A nice couple cleans the office where I work.
Our staff is in and out of the place around the clock, every day. One hundred people who work in the field tend to track a lot of that field back into the office. These two keep the place up and are very nice about it in the process.
On the day I’m telling you about, I had been out of the office. The morning was jumping. There were a lot of situations for me to oversee. Unfortunately, being busy put me behind my morning schedule.
There are certain biological functions that have to happen at specific times of day. A person could set their clock by me.
Why I don’t schedule meetings before 9.
Nature called, right on time. By the time I was able to break free and zip to the office, nature had called back and left several messages. Each message was more urgent than the last.
I ran in to the office and toward the locker room to relieve the pressure. As I turned in toward the bathroom section of the locker room, the cleaning guy was working in there. I stopped, not sure if he needed more time.
When you say “its cool”, I interpret that as “its cool”. Usually I am right.
I heard him getting his stuff to leave. As usual, there was someone else in the locker room. I assumed it was someone changing clothes at their locker. It wasn’t. I was still facing the porcelain, taking care of business when the other half of our cleaning team strolled through the bathroom.
What kind of guy would tell me to just go on, knowing his girlfriend was in the room?
There was only one thing I could say to her.
In my defense, DaVinci didn’t draw plumbing fixtures well either.
I can answer the question: “What kind of guy would tell me to just go on, knowing his girlfriend was in the room?” One who has a cooler girlfriend than himself or myself for that matter!
I wonder if it is a running joke with them, like ah hah, got you again!
Really the guy should have told you his other half was still in the room. How did he know you wouldn’t be embarrassed? My hubby is so shy, he wouldn’t even go into the room if someone else was there even if he was dying.
I was mostly embarrassed because I felt like I wasn’t being a gentleman. Later, I thought about it and realized that I was where I was supposed to be.
I used to visit a very old bar in Manhattan. They didn’t let women in until 1972 – and that was only because the law said they had to. When they begrudgingly let in the fair sex, they did so without changing the bar. Same sawdust, nicotine stained walls and same door in the back with the word “Toilet” on it. After sampling a mug or three of the brews, I’d find myself swaying slightly in front of the gigantic urinal, standing in the grooved floor as a million men before me had done. Unlike those men of yesteryear, I’d have the occasional woman stroll in and duck into a stall behind me. At first it was shocking, but eventually it just was. I was saddened to hear that they’ve supposedly renovated the place and put in seperate bathrooms. So much for history, so much for charm…
I can’t see changing a plce like that, other than correcting the no women thing. How can that be a good idea
They had some great characterisitics – beer was only sold two at a time, all the waiters and bartenders were illegal Irish immigrants, and there were cats walking around the sawdust covered floors.
I was going to ask how you sneak across the border from Ireland, but then I realized I was told that my late uncle entered illegally from Italy, I think in the ’40′s.
Having accidentally walked into the men’s restroom many times throughout my life, I don’t think I could ever get used to the opposite sex hanging out while I’m busy. (“Hanging out” wasn’t a pun. Really.)
No pun intended, none received. Really.
You just made my whole day. It’s 6:23 a.m. and my day cannot be bad. Not just because of your fantastic art skills but because a girl watched you “handle” your business. Fantastic. She really should have come up with something more clever to say like, “How’s it hanging Oma?” I probably would have yelled something to make you turn towards me and then you would have left me more work on the floor and laid it all out on the table. Win-win.
You could be the first woman to yell fire in a crowded men’s room.
Bwahahaha! Oh…sorry to laugh at your misfortune.
It’s ok, as long as that’s what you’re laughing at.
BWAHAHAHA!
Or shaking hands.
Ha! I should have high fived her.
If she is a smart girl, she would have declined.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Seriously. HAHAHAHAHA!
You know, I feel bad about myself when you laugh at my urinal drawing.
There’s a ladies’ room at the zoo that is the warmest place on grounds in the winter. The cleaning staff always save it for last, and it takes them 2 hours to clean it. I keep walking in and finding one of the guys in there.
Your drawings are beautiful. I’d like a unicorn please.
A lot of people are taken by the interplay of light and shadow in my work.
I was going to say that, plus the detail and perspective.
In Japan the hot springs sometimes have female staff cleaning in the men’s change room area: usually it’s older women, but sometimes it’s women my age … that makes me drop my towel. hee hee!
Gravity. You can’t fight it.
Good thing you weren’t startled.
Yeah, the floor was just mopped.
Meh. She’s seen bigger. I mean better. I mean – dang. Never mind. It’s the dude’s fault.
I had lived in men-only dormitory while I was in a co-ed college, so I am no longer shocked by the sight of ladies in the men’s room. Obviously, the planners thought that if it’s a men’s dormitory, there’s no way a woman would ever enter the building, so they never bothered installing a separate bathroom for them.
About half the time when I want to use the ladies’ room at work, there’s someone in there cleaning it. On the bright side, our restrooms are always very clean.
Of course you couldn’t wave. Your hands were full.