03 Oct I’m Sorry!
I walk into the airport bathroom behind a woman who is on her phone.
She’s showing no sign of wrapping up her conversation.
Oh good grief, I think, She is going to be one of those bathroom talkers.
I do not like bathroom talkers (I would say “hate,” but we are trying not to say hate as a family; my kids call it “the h— word”)
I go into a stall, and I hang my purse on the hook.
My leg hits my suitcase in the impossibly small and incorrectly inward-swinging door.
My suitcase topples over with a loud thud.
“Sorry!” I exclaim aloud.
Why did I say that? I’m annoyed with myself. I’m sorry for my suitcase tipping over? I’m the one with likely broken toiletries. You know who should be saying sorry: the person who designed this door to swing inward.
“No problem,” she calls out.
I pause, and I tilt my head. Is she now replying to the sorry I never should have uttered?
I try to be extra quiet pulling out and putting down the toilet seat cover. I go to the bathroom in the quietest of ways.
She’s still talking.
She’s discussing a party she has to go to this weekend and whether she should bring guacamole or a fruit plate.
This is what couldn’t wait?
Don’t get me wrong, I know multitasking. I get multitasking. Multitasking is my life.
But this? This is just showing poor social skills.
I walk out, and she is standing at the sink next to me.
The stall door slams behind me.
She glances at me, seemingly annoyed.
I mouth, “I’m sorry!”
Did I just apologize again to this woman? Are you kidding me? What am I apologizing for? She is the one breaking socially acceptable norms.
We walk out of the bathroom and toward the C gates.
She puts her phone away.
Now we are awkwardly walking next to each other.
I feel the pressure to say something to her.
It’s building up.
I turn to her and say “Sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation, but you should definitely bring a fruit plate. When guacamole discolors, no one wants to eat it even though it tastes just as delicious.”