First Time Using a Public Bathroom Since March

We dropped Jack off at college today.

And when I say "dropped off" I mean that almost literally.

It was a super hot day in Texas today. I think it got up to 107?

I ended up having to pee on the ride there.

I didn't want to pee in Jack's dorm, because I wouldn't want to know that a bunch of random parents and siblings were peeing in Jack's new bathroom. So I didn't want to do the same to anyone else. I mean it's bad enough sharing a bathroom with other students during a PANDEMIC. But worse to have to share with their family members as well.

I had Tim drop me off at the university center.

I went to the bathroom, realizing this is the first time I've been in a public restroom since the pandemic began.  The thought made me feel proud. Yeah, Dina! You're so good at social distancing!!!  

It also made me feel horribly privileged. 

The funny thing is, I think the last time I went to a public restroom....it might have been at the university. The last big outing we went on before the pandemic began was on March 7. We went to an event a the college and then we went out to dinner with my parents and my cousin.  There's a chance I went to the bathroom at the restaurant, but I don't remember doing so. 

Anyway.....

The restroom in the university center was pretty gross.

I mean, it wasn't a horror show.

But I would have hoped they'd keep it extra clean during the pandemic.

Which makes me feel conflicted. Because extra clean means extra hours and work for the custodians—extra time and chances for them to risk their lives.

After I did my business, I went to wash my hands.

I then saw that they didn't have lovely touchless paper towel dispensers.

Instead they have those super strong air blowers. I didn't use, because I vaguely remembered that those are not good for helping to remove germs.  I looked it up on the way home and saw that my vague memories were correct.

Tim and I have been fighting the school a lot about their Covid response. The hand blowers was just another thing to add to our angers. Although it's minor to other things....such as requiring Freshman to stay on campus and have a roommate; allegedly threatening to fire staff for complaining to the media about their concerns; and scaring/guilting students who have chosen to take a gap year.  

 

Anyway, back to my story.

I had this idea that I'd go the bathroom and quickly make it back to the dorm to help them unload the car.

That didn't work out well.

I had no idea where I was going. And there were none of those lovely little signs that some places have...with the arrows pointing you in the right direction.

I had to use Google Maps and my compass on my iPhone.  With the combination of the extreme heat, my stupidity, and dropping-your-kid-off-to-college nervousness, I forgot how to use Google Maps.

I kept going in the wrong direction.

By the time I got there, Tim, Jack, and the new roommate had brought up all the stuff. Jack and the roommate were ready for us to get out of there, so they could go to lunch to meet a friend.

It was a VERY quick goodbye. 

We had planned to help him unpack a bit...mostly so we could take back some of the stuff such as boxes and suitcases.

But....my bladder ruined that.

Well, because if I hadn't had to pee, I could have helped them unload. Then we'd probably have time to quickly dump stuff out before the lunch date.  

Anyway....

Hopefully, Tim and I will be wrong. Hopefully a miracle will happen and the university will defy biology. The students will stay healthy and not pass on Covid 19 to to their family members and the community.

OR hopefully the powers-that-be will have the good sense to close down the school when it comes to that point, AND hopefully they will offer housing and meal plan refunds.

What I fear is they will try to suppress cases as much as possible...just so they can keep the school open and not lose more money.

I mean I DO feel for them, and I worry that all these institutions are losing money. I'm not sure what's going to happen to higher education. I imagine there will be a lot of bankruptcies and closures.  And that's going to be horrible for the communities as well. 

But I still think that, when it comes down to it, keeping people alive and healthy needs to be the top priority.  Living people...survivors...can later work to reopen that which had to close....and/or they can work to rebuild and innovate.  

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts