How Workplace Restrooms Can Lead to Temporary Mental Demise...

I'm not super sure how this 'blogging' is going to work, so please bear with me. I need to find a way to say what I feel without being too OPEN, or potentially hurting someone else. If there's going to be a blog about life scenarios, and situations (serious, not serious, etc) I guess I am going to have to learn! 

I will start with something light, a little gross, but not too serious...

Workplace Restroom Etiquette! Embarrassingly enough-- one of the things I have had to do a couple times at my 1st job is: plunge the toilet. Disgusting... really. I've done it b/c people have left the toilet that way, and I feel it's common courtesy. If I didn't take the liberty my HR manager would be doing, and since I kind of 'assist' her... I figured this might be an assistance to her. Still... really gross.

I had a serious mental trip about it one day too! I was thinking "Is this what I have reduced myself to? Have I irrevocably screwed up my life to the point where I am plunging someone's s*it??" 

So, here I am plunging this toilet, almost in tears because a) I am plunging a damn toilet with someone's excrement in it and b) my arms were getting sore thus confirming how out of shape I am and c) I have all these thoughts in my head about where I 'should' be and how low I felt. I know it seems like a lot, but I plunged for 15 minutes. (If you know me, this is enough time for me to cry, laugh, yell, and go to sleep).

Finally, I decided that the culprits, or usual bathroom-bombing suspects were not going to sit in their cubicles while I plunged. I went back to my desk and realized I work with people who might have serious stomach issues! Oh well, not for me to worry about--I had all this junk heavy on my mind about my life. Just as I am about to write a self deprecating status on Facebook, the owner of my company walks up with the plunger and says to me "I'm going to give it a shot, you tried right?" (enter disbelief here) I quickly ran up and walked with him over to the restroom... Ew, no I didn't stand over the owner while he plunged, but I heard him...he plunged for a good 10 minutes. He came back out and said "We need to call the handyman, that's beyond a plunger," or something to that effect... Really?? That's all? He didn't come to me crying about how screwed up his life was? He didn't need a therapy session? He didn't want to call his significant other crying? Or have a drink at 10am? 

So, in a matter of 30 minutes while I plunged and he plunged, I recalled how I quit going to school for a boy, I quit going to school for money, I quit living at home for 'freedom', and here I was: back at home, back in school, and plunging toilets. At minute 31 when the owner of my very successful place of employment was done plunging a toilet, in his office, the s*it of someone he employed, I realized that I let myself go right to a point of negativity and reflection and self loathing, while the owner was just doing what needed to get done....(novel concept, right?)

With that being said, I don't LIKE plunging now, and I definitely do NOT have an appreciation for plungers, but I do know: I am doing what I need to get 'it' done (in reference to my life) Pretty nuts what has to happen for me to ground myself sometimes....

I am coining the term: When life hands you a clogged toilet; plunge it.