[daphne]

I wonder if I've posted this before. I hope not. Redundancy sucks.

In Case Western, I lived in a 4-story dormatory that was thankfully co-ed. The floors were also co-ed, which was great. The 6-pack of dudes next to our suite (and they were a 6-pack group if I've ever seen one) were my pals. We spent countless hours screaming to Marillion and shooting whippets. Yes, college is so eduational.

EDIT- whippets as in whipped cream has cartridges, not dogs.

There was also a group of guys on the floor above us with whom I frequented because they were polite and awfully sweet to hang out with. And, they fought like chicks. I could not count the times on my fingers that I ascended the stairs to see who was going to dinner to arrive to bickering about the dumbest things. Toilet paper, the phone bill, you name it, they hissied over it.

One evening I went upstairs to grab a few buddies to chow down with and I found the bathroom door propped open with that little wedge of wood with which just about every living person is familiar. I though nothing of it until I heard the most wonderful fart escape from under the one stall door. I walked by and knocked on a friend's door and announced, "It's me! Wanna' eat?" He replied something about having to change his shirt, so I waited in the livingroom, which was next to the bathroom. Eric, who I figured out was in the stall began to yell for someone to close the bathroom door.

"Close the door, godammit!"

No one came.

Hey, I wasn't going near the thing. I frankly didn't know what to do. This was unchartered territory, my friend. Having a dude hold your hair as you puke, one thing. Crashing in a trusted dude's room, one thing. Approaching a bathroom and having to enter it to remove a wooden wedge that is holding a door inches from a bathroom stall containing someone freaking out that he's shitting while a girl is less than 15 feet from him is, well, quite another. It might not have been so bad had he just chilled out and waited; but then again, maybe he couldn't hold it in. I was mortified. Farts, some plopping, and all the while, his increasingly-panicked voice demanding that some "close the fucking door!" filled the suite.

Finally, one of their suitemates came in, heard the commotion, and saved the day by pulling the wooden wedge away from the door. It shut just as the guy I had been waiting for emerged from his room with a clean shirt.

"What the hell was that all about?" he asked.

"Um, I think Eric wanted someone to close the door." I replied.

Eric emerged from the bathroom (again, I thought he would have hidden in there had the experience been so bad for him) with a reddened face and clenched fists. He walked right by me, not looking, and then said to the guy I was leaving with, "Thanks, asshole."

Eric didn't look at me for a week.

Looking back at this, I think I wouldn't have been so embarrassed along with him if he would have reacted with more jocularity. Had he just shouted, "Hey! I'm takin' a dump in here! Shut the door if you don't want you nosehairs burnt, willya'?!, I would have probably giggled and shut the door. His shamefulness not only worsened the situation but caused it altogether.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.......

[wonderpance]

you know, i've actually been thinking about this lately. it occurs to me that embarrassing events are more embarrassing if the person can't laugh at the situation. for example, i fall down a lot. i'm a klutz. i've accepted this fact, and laugh at myself when it happens. this way, when other people are around, and they can see that i'm not hurt or embarrassed, they won't be all like, "oh my god! are you ok?!" cuz i hate that. i'm always ok, and for some reason, other people making a bigger deal out of it than i do makes it more embarrassing. does that make any sense?

i think that embarrassment is a choice. i choose not to get embarrassed when i fall down, and that guy chose to be embarrassed that you could hear him pooping. had he simply laughed about it, or not taken it so seriously, like you said, he wouldn't have been anywhere near as embarrassed.

it's friday and i'm tired, and i don't know if any of that makes sense.

[Drizzlies]

you know, i've actually been thinking about this lately. it occurs to me that embarrassing events are more embarrassing if the person can't laugh at the situation.

You're dead on with that thought! I would have been embarrassed about last night's farting session while the little lady was 10 feet away from the bathroom if I hadn't been laughing the whole damn time. It was a great 10-second machine gun ripper. One of my best, I must say.

[wonderpance]

exactly. if people didn't take themselves so seriously, there'd be no such thing as embarrassment!

[Slim Jim Junkie]

I have seen the potential for that to happen to me. Too many times I am in such a hurry to reach the public stall, I don't notice that the lock is broken. In such a hurry, I fail to care, and hope I can finish "The turn" before something bad happens.

Other times, while I am stuck on the can, I see where an alternate lock was hastily installed. Too bad I can't cut it off at this point, and use the lock.