Well, I started my new job about a week ago and have found it relatively easy to settle in.  I’ve been mentally composing a blog post for several days now that would highlight some of the terrific advantages, and while I’m really excited about multiple aspects of my new job, I can’t seem to get past how great the bathrooms are here!

Now, for some context:  I had considered writing bathroom-related entries on many occasions at my previous job. They were awful. All of them.  A seven-story building with restrooms on every floor and each and every one of those restrooms had unique characterics that made them completley unpleasant and avoidable. The basement level had a nice spacious handicapped stall away from all of the others, but no hot water at the sink.  The main level was often standing-room only with women doing their hair, fixing their make-up, waiting for toilets, whatever…  And all of the bathrooms were filthy at best, low on toilet-paper, and worst of all: automatic flushers. I want to break the knee-caps of the person that invented the automatic flusher. How is that helpful?  It mis-fires all the time, causing the squatter to stand with your pants around your ankles until the flushing has ceased, or get your back-side sprayed with toilet-water.  Lovely. Really, what a terrific invention.  Cause… let’s face it:  I just can’t remember to flush that baby on my own!  Or, maybe some germaphobes are convinced that hand-washing won’t suffice after touching that cooties-infected flusher.  Please don’t cater to those people!

Anyways. The new bathrooms. Four per floor. Four private bathrooms per floor. There’s one right outside my office. Rarely used. If it is, there’s another just down the hall. Each bathroom is spacious, well-lit, and provides an extra chair with a writing surface… you know, just in case you need to proctor an exam while going to the loo. Best of all, each toilet is equipped with a traditional lever for flushing. Is that so much to ask?  Oh, and copious amounts of paper products, anti-bacterial soap that doesn’t smell wierd or self-foam, and excellent instructions for how and when to wash your hands. The coup-de-grace?  A pleasant little reminder by the door to turn off the lights so that the Florida Everglades don’t dissapper under water. (something about greenhouse gases, global warming and polar ice-caps melting?  huh, never heard of it!)

So, I’ll try to remember to talk about some of the finer points of my new job in a future post, but for now you should just know that I’m happily peeing away. Oh, and there’s a 5 foot black  snake that likes to sun itself in front of the building…  And I’m trying to be okay with that.