There are so many things we do again and again in our lives.
In a way, we should know everything there is to know about them; we do it
everyday. But more often than not, we know nothing. We ignore them and take
them for granted that it has to be done. We lose those little pleasures.
Remember when walking was a joy? When it was a great accomplishment to run up
and down the hallway, when having that one cone of ice cream was like a piece
of heaven…
Going to the toilet; we all do it. It’s the same, but it’s
different. If it’s the toilet at home, or if it’s the one at a mall, or if it’s
at school; it’s different, but it’s the same. At home, you might push the door
open, slip your feet into the bathroom slippers, touch the sink, close the door….but
if it’s a public toilet, there is
that necessity to take a peek before going in. Ask yourself why. I know that
years ago, it was just the typical “beware” signs to be hyper vigilant about.
For instance, if the door is closed, or if the toilet cover is down, or there
is a lump of toilet paper that is suspicious-lookingly-lumped on the floor. But
with the technology advancement we have had, there are other reasons to be
wary. Yes, toilets have gone through great changes. From having bidets that
shoot water at weird angles to unwanted parts, to having blow dryers! Yes, you
read that right. You know how in the olden days, we used to dry our freshly
washed hands with towels, then we “evolved” to paper towels, and then (due to
pollution and waste) to air hand dryers? Then the old hand dryers were
pointless until the double blade hand dryer came to existence and we were all
like “Woohoo, our hands are actually dry from being blown.” Well, now comes the
“butt dryer”. But let me tell you, I felt harassed the first (and thankfully,
only) time I used it. It is not pleasant to have your butt blown from the
inside of a toilet bowl. Call me conservative if you will, but is this not the
very bowl upon which I have just defecated into, and now as a “hygiene” process
you propose to blow upon me air that comes from within your vicinity? I beg to
differ! My goodness, it was horrible! All this, from a toilet!
Then there are those routines that coincide with other
people. I mean, we are all different, but in a way, we are all the same. When
you live in a household with those “dearly beloved”, it’s very apparent that
these mindless, thoughtless routines connect us. Your bottle of shampoo he
always uses, her bar of soap that is always in the bathtub instead of in the
soap dish, the bundle of toothbrushes that always find a way to “kiss” in the
toothbrush mug (especially when one of them is wet), the tangled and drenched
jumble of hair that decorates the drain.
The toothpaste.
Some people are very particular about how the toothpaste is
squeezed. Some just grab it by the gut and pour out toothpaste enough to lather
a small animal, some pinch the ends of the tube, trying tho make sure every
drop is pushed slowly (but surely) to the top, some like to even out the
pressure, so that the toothpaste can always “stand” in the toothbrush mug. And
don’t forget the toothpaste nozzle. You know, the part where the toothpaste
come out? Some like to keep it clean and clear away any excess that wasn’t
swiped by the toothpaste, some don’t bother and leave the nozzle all crusty and
it eventually forms a small “head” that seals off the toothpaste exit and then
the toothpaste are all like “oh God, we’ll never get out of here” ‘cuz
sometimes these people will just leave the sealed-in toothpaste be, and they
think like it’s fate that they shouldn’t be using that toothpaste anymore and they
go out and get a new tube of toothpaste until that new tube of toothpaste gets sealed-in and they go out to buy
yet another tube of toothpaste, but there
are also those that go through hard labour to chip off the sealed entrance and
release the remaining toothpaste to serve their selfish purposes of
toothbrushing. Then there’s the amount of
toothpaste that people put onto the toothbrushes (I’m going to stop here for sanity
purposes)
Irritating. You have good reason for wanting the toothpaste
to be squeezed form the very bottom, so that each drop is used. Everyday you
wake up knowing, just knowing that
your perfectly bottom-squeezed toothpaste is going to have a mangled body and
sticky nozzle because that person used
it before you. Every night you put in muscle and brawn to form that perfectly
icing-bag of toothpaste so that all the unused toothpaste is united at the top of the tube. And every morning you
wake up to see that it is mangled yet again. You labour to “fix” the tube,
hoping that this time, this time,
that person will get the message and follow suit. But no, always, always it is found mangled and dirty-nozzled
on the sink.
Then one day, one precious day, you find that your battle
has ended. That tube of toothpaste you labourously pinched into shape remains
in that same shape! You won! Victory at last!
You rush out to declare your triumph, and you notice your
shampoo has been left untouched, less hair covers the drain, the bar of soap is
neither in the bathtub nor the soap dish, and the toothbrush lies on the bare
sink next to your precious, “perfectly” squeezed tube of toothpaste.
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