An Ode to the Bathroom Dweller

I have always had issues with public toilets.

And by issues I mean, I think they are gross, and I don't like the smell of the soap they usually have: once I use it I feel like I'm smelling it all day.

Unfortunately when I am away from my home for over twelve hours a day I am forced to use the school bathrooms sometimes.

There are a few bathrooms on campus I am okay with using. These usually are single-room handicapped ones (I get stage fright). But every once in a while my handicapped bathrooms are occupied and I am forced to face the public stalls. Ugh.

I encountered that very situation today: I had to go, so I headed up to one of my more preferred bathrooms in LNCO (the language and communications building at the U). This one has good smelling soap, so I don't mind it so much.

As I'm sitting there in my own little stall I hear it: a faint rustling a couple stalls over, even though I was sure the bathroom was empty when I came in. I immediately knew what it was: a creature I like to call the 'bathroom dweller.'

Whenever I use a public bathroom I notice this: there is always at least one stall occupied by some mouth-breathing someone (or something). You know who they are; these people (or things) never seems to leave no matter how long you stay, even though they were probably there waaaay before you got there.

Am I the only one who notices this?

I never hear any tinkling, or toilet-paper-rustling come from these stalls, just the occasional shuffling and some form of mouth breathing.

Therefore, I have decided to call this person/thing the "bathroom dweller."

Sometimes I wonder if it is just some poor person, and whether I should ask them if they are okay, but my fear/disgust wont let me.

This is the amount of grime I tend to picture in my mind when I enter a public toilet.

I know, I know, I'm a terrible person.