is anyone out there???

Side note: Embarrassing and awkward things always seem to happen to me. So when embarrassing and awkward things happen to OTHER people, well...I just LOVE it!

Brian sent me an e-mail about his excitement this morning that I just had to post. And the best part of the story? It didn't even happen to me!

What a way to start the day.

So, there I was, sitting trying to mind my own business in my adopted stall in my adopted bathroom in the CAC (Music Building at WVU). Suddenly, I hear "clip clop clip clop" go by outside in the hallway. I figure I'm safe from being joined in my little pre-8 AM commune with nature. However, the clip clops get closer and closer. They get so close that they sound like they're in the little airlock area leading into this bathroom.

Then the door opens! Two people walk in. One goes into the stall beside me (the only other stall in this bathroom) and turns around in black, satin high heels with little black bows on the closed toes.

So, now my mind is racing. Did I really read "MEN" on the door like I thought I did on the way in? Did I see all the hallmarks of a men's bathroom on my way to the stall?

"Can you turn the water on?" the girl in the stall beside me asks. "Sorry, I'm just...you know."

So, apparently she has a companion with her who then turns the water on in one of the sinks.

Now my mind is really going. Surely she can see my shoes and knows that I'm not a girl. I've got my coat hanging over the crack in the door, so I can't even peek out to verify my own gender's porcelain accouterments on the opposite wall.

So, I sit very, very still and hope she doesn't start screaming at me and bring the police into this already uncomfortable situation. That, and I keep hoping she'll hurry up---I'll have to, well, finish things up AFTER she leaves; then I'll have to wait a couple minutes to make sure they are far down the hallway. And I parked in a 15-minute parking spot!

Tick tick tick tick tick....

Then the door opens again. A male voice says, "oh...well, this is awkward..."

One of the two girls answers, "we could NOT find a girl's bathroom!"

Whew! At least it wasn't me that was mixed up!

So, the magnanimous guy offers to show them where it is. He leaves. I get a little uncomfortable again when I hear the toilet paper roll turning.

Finally she flushes and is about to leave. Amongst all the things going through my head that I COULD say ("sorry about the mix up", "I won't tell if you won't", "Here are my keys---can you move my car?"), the thing that I feel like I can't resist saying is this:

"Nice shoes."