I work in a fairly small office. We have about thirty to forty people. About ten of those, including myself are men. One of the things that was implemented a few months back was to turn off the lights in the men’s restroom when you leave. Apparently this was discussed at a sustainability (recycle/reduce energy/save the world) meeting that I missed. For the most part I abide by this. If I go in and the lights are out, I turn them out when I leave. If I go in and the lights are on I’ll leave them on, someone might be in the other stall (we only have 2 stalls) quietly doing the doo or something…
So today, I was in the restroom, sitting in the second stall, when I hear someone come in. I think nothing of it. I will note that for the most part I’m not very loud when I’m on the toilet. I don’t pay much attention to the guy whizzing or washing afterwards. What gets my attention is that as he leaves there is a loud CLICK and I’m suddenly crapping in the dark. Now I was about half way done when I was plunged into darkness. When I say darkness, I mean it was dark. The restroom has no windows, only that one light, and after a few minutes, I could vaguely make out a strip of light that was the bottom of the door. All I could do was sigh and finish my business, in the dark. I was not about to try to get up and turn on the light, as that would require 1) stopping in the middle of what I was doing (not something I wanted to think about) 2) fumbling in the dark to open the stall door, 3) walking over to the light and turning it on, praying no one walks in and sees me with my pants around my ankles shuffling to or from the stall to turn on the lights. So I finished in the dark and hit the lights before I washed my hands. I wonder who had turned out the lights… I’ll never know, and honestly it doesn’t matter, it was just an annoyance.
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