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Show AggieLife Page 6 Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 Learning from embarrassing moments I n an era of stunningly innovative technological advances, automaticity in a bathroom is a given. It makes people feel less germy. Toilets automatically flush themselves, paper towels dispense with a wave of the hand, sinks automatically turn on when they sense presence and soap boxes squirt sanitizer into outstretched hands. It is outright sanitary magic. Which is all fine and dandy, unless, as in my case, these marvels do not detect your body. I seem to have an immunity to automatic detection in the restroom. In other words, I do my business in the toilet and the toilet does not respond, leaving me in a squeamish predicament. Should I leave the stall without flushing? Ew, ew, ew. I could absolutely never ever allow myself to do that. So instead I end up doing all sorts of ridiculous things to get my infernal porcelain friend to flush, ultimately resorting to Irish and African step-dance moves to trigger the removal of my waste. Well, that is, I used to dance away my waste until I was informed that there is a secret button on automatic toilets that you can push to manually operate the plumbing. Holy Toledo. All of these years of not knowing. Jiminy Crickets. Making me wonder, how on earth do normal people become educated about things like the button? Why do I always feel like I am the last person on the face of the planet to clue in on such street smarts? Story time. My freshman year, as I prepped myself for sleep in the communal dormitory bathroom on the fifth floor in VVT, two friends walked into the joint to take respective showers. Background Info: There were four showers stalls. Three were plain showers, but the fourth had a shower/bathtub setup, making it a popular showering choice among floor mates because it had, contrary to the other stalls, ample elbow room to change clothes. The Unspoken (yet intrinsically understood) Law: If a curtain is shut, someone is using the shower. I grasped this concept, but I struggled with it because sometimes when the curtain was shut, there would be no person inside, enforcing the irrational prohibition of a comfortable and vacant shower space. It aggravated me beyond compare. Back to the Story: In this situation, the curtain to the bathtub/shower was pulled shut, so the newly entered girls, full of dejected disappointment, settled on other, though lesser in quality, available showers. “Oh, c’mon,” I said, my mouth spewing with toothpaste foam. “There’s no water running. I bet there isn’t a single soul in there.” To prove my point, I began to whack the shower curtain and shout, “Is there anyone in there? Hello? Hello? Anybody there?” No answer. I figured I was home free to slide open the curtain, so, with all the self-assurance in the world, I did. There was a scream. I screamed. The two prospective shower takers screamed. I whipped the curtain closed immediately, feeling incredibly impish. I had intruded on another member of our floor, who was nonchalantly lying in the bathtub reading a book. “Why didn’t you answer when I asked if anyone was there?” I demanded defensively. “I was absorbed in my enthralling novel,” she yelled back to me. Holy Toledo and Jiminy Crickets. “I promise I didn’t see anything. I don’t have my contacts in, and I am as blind as a ... as a blind person,” I shouted reassuringly. “No need to be embarrassed,” she responded considerately. “It was rather startling, but I’ll live.” It gets better. The Next Morning: I was in the shower (the non-bathtub one) doing my thing, when I realized I had forgotten my towel. Oh crud. Once when I previously found myself in this situation, I had used my dirty clothes to dry off my sopping body. Ew, ew, ew. It was disgusting and a waste of a cleansing shower. I did not want to repeat the experience. “Umm ... ” I timidly cleared my voice. “Is there anyone out there?” “Yes?” answered the girl I had intruded upon in the bathtub/ shower the night before. Irony of ironies. I began to laugh, then she began to laugh. After we regained composure of our diaphragms, I asked her if she could possibly run by my room and grab my lime green towel for my drying needs. She obliged my request and when she returned, she commented, “We really have the most interesting bathroom experiences, don’t we?” Melissa Condie is a senior majoring in music education. Her column will appear here weekly. Contact her at m.condie@aggiemail.usu.edu Wild: Club for outdoor enthusiasts -continued from page 5 JoNNY Olson, head of the Survival Club, shows his group how to make a simple sling out of a small piece of leather and a few feet of rope during its first meeting last Thursday at First Dam. TYLER LARSON photo science senior, said she doesn’t know much about wilderness survival but joined the Survival Club because she enjoys the outdoors and she wanted to learn more and have fun. She said she hopes to learn things like first aid and building a fire in case something happened while camping or hiking. Wallin said the club is open to everyone. “I think it’s a good group of people. It’s fun and you don’t have to be a boy scout,” she said. “There’s no criteria. We’ll take anyone.” Olson said he encourages students enthusiastic about the outdoors to join the club and learn more about survival techniques. “We want to have a lot of people come and learn,” he said. “Enthusiasm is what I’m look- ing for, enthusiasm for the outdoors without a fear of getting lost.” Clark said learning about outdoor survival also helps him appreciate the comforts people enjoy in modern society. “I’d encourage (students to join) to get outdoors and also (appreciate) what we enjoy as a society,” he said. “If you want to come out and have a good time, come join the Survival Club.” To join the club, meet at First Dam each Thursday at 4:30 p.m. or e-mail Olson at j.olson@aggiemail.usu.edu. –karlie.brand@aggiemail.usu.edu Formal rules on sex in dorm rooms unnecessary, many say By SUSAN SNYDER AND OLIVIA BIAGI The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT) in diamond certificates the Clock Call store for more details 752-7149 141 N. Main 752-7149 Middle of the Block, at the Sign of the Clock. PHILADELPHIA – Penn State sophomore Ricky Morales and his roommates worked it out themselves: If the others are asleep, it’s OK to have sex with a partner in the room. “It’s all about communication. That’s what it comes down to,” said Morales, a journalism major from Stroudsburg, Pa. But at Tufts University near Boston, students apparently weren’t able to negotiate such delicate matters so deftly. After receiving about a dozen complaints in the last several years from a student body of 5,000, the upscale private university this fall took what is at the very least an unusual step in the world of college housing: It banned in writing sex with a roommate present. Some students thought the policy sounded like a good idea. “Sex should never have witnesses. Then it’s just porn,” said Fleurette Louis-Jacques, 20, an English and French linguistics double major at Rutgers University. She and her roommate haven’t discussed the topic, she said, but added that they don’t have sex: “Seriously, not even being funny, we’re like nuns.” Most students, however, thought that a written policy was unnecessary. “Everyone here is smart enough to understand that it’s a common courtesy” to leave the room while your roommate is having sex, said Doug Mocik, a freshman English major at La Salle University, “ ... unless your roommate is a freak.” Temple University senior Jordan Ramsey was incredulous that a policy would be needed. Told about the Tufts ban, he quipped: “Somebody wasn’t getting any!” Even some who have fallen victim weren’t upset. Ashley Clark, a senior business-law major at Temple, said she once had a roommate who would have sex while Clark was asleep. Clark sometimes woke up. She thought it was “weird, but it didn’t bother me.” Kelly Powell, 21, a history and women’s and gender studies double major at the College of New Jersey, had it happen to her, too. “I didn’t really care that much, as I was sleeping at the time,” she said, “but I discussed it with her afterward and told her that it could not happen again.” Then there were those who thought sex with a roommate close by was something to be celebrated. “You’ve got to get fist pounds,” said Cory Winkoff, a junior communication major at the University of Pennsylvania. He and a group of friends high-fived one another when the subject was introduced. “We’re happy when our friends are hooking up,” agreed Terry Kennedy, a junior political science major. “It’s college; it kind of happens.” Most schools surveyed have no specific policy on sex in a room, but many ban behavior that offends a roommate. “Our residence life guest policy prohibits guests in a room over the objections of a roommate regardless of the activity,” said Sandy Lanman, a spokeswoman for Rutgers. |