Observed

What with all the hubbub lately over Senator Larry Craig, I may be a bit more aware of bathroom etiquette than usual...but I've sure seen some strange things this week.

Write your name in feces! Why would someone do anything with their waste but flush it? Maybe I'm conservative or old school on this one, maybe repressed in my upbringing or something, but it seems a bit odd to me. Above all else, why would one be so proud as to ascribe their name on the stall wall, and yet do it with poop?

Tall voyeurs lurk. (Women may not be able to relate to this one...) Toilet stalls are in men's rooms for work to be done sitting down. Other acts should be done at the urinal. I know some people have bashful bladder and need the security of a stall to accomplish their tasks; however, it's just creepy when especially tall men choose to urinate in an adjacent stall. All too often there is some uncomfortable exchange, "Hey, how's it goin'" when eye contact is made over the top of the stall. Why are they standing over there, and why are they looking down here? It's just odd.

Mobile Phone madness. Not only have I heard people regularly converse while in a stall doing their business, but I've also heard those conversations punctuated with grunting, panting, and other sounds that accompany the work to be done in the stall. I would not want to be on the phone with someone thus engaged. Why do people insist on talking on their mobile phones while they are otherwise so busy?

....and today, the most peculiar observation of late...

I had to make a visit to the high school "BOYS" restroom, for the one in my building was out of commission. This alone brought back eerie memories of fighting, of pissing contests, and of many unmentionables that ever-haunt a fellow. Anyway, while in the boy's room, I was at the urinal (as anyone should be when executing the function I was involved in). Nearby, some young man was in a stall, sitting there with his pants around his ankles. He was not overly consumed with his biological function therein; however, he was totally consumed with flipping two coins. He would flip the pair, then grumble or comment under his breath, then pick them up and do it again, and again, and again...this continued through my follow-up hand washing, my attention to good grooming, and likely long after I left. He was, at one time, apparently pleased with the outcome of the coin flipping, commenting, "Finally!" (though this could have been something related to his other purpose in the stall, I guess). I am supposing that he was testing statistics, attempting to note (perhaps in human excrement tally marks inside the stall) whenever the two were coming up the same side up--but I will never know.

Keep an eye out, there are always strange things afoot.