Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Got To Go Got To Go Got To Go Right Now!!

Bathrooms are widely considered the second greatest inventions of all time. The greatest inventions of all time is, of course, toilet paper. The apparent popularity of bathrooms therefore makes it surprising, sometimes traumatic, to learn the fact that the nearest bathroom is always too far away when you most need it.

For example, in the Biology building, old and ugly, not all floors are equipped with bathrooms. Even those lucky floors have only one of the necessary two: either men's room or women's room. This arbitrary arrangement are welcomed by certain residents of the building but hated by others, who have to travel to other floors to answer nature's call. Imagine when you have diarrhea.

My lab is on the 3rd floor. Right across the hallway is a bathroom-a men's room.

Boy, aren't I lucky.

Which was precisely what I was thinking when I walked out of the bathroom today. A girl, who was an undergraduate student working in the lab next door to us, was hurrying by the bathroom door. Seeing me coming out of it, she turned around and asked:

"Is there anyone in there?"

"Eh...no,"I answered, quite puzzled by the question,"but..."

She pushed the door open and rushed in:

"I don't care. I have to go! No time to take the stairs! Hahahahahahaha..."

Her nervous laughter echoed behind the closing door, while I remained dumbfounded. Finally, realizing that I could do nothing about it, I decided to pace to and fro outside the bathroom to prevent any possible "accidents" to happen, until I heard the sound of flushing.

The take-home lesson: wish for a new building.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Perfect Weather!

After several weeks of miserable, rainy weather, we finally had a warm, sunny Sunday.

Blue sky, cool breeze. Perfect.

I sat in the lab, feeling happy. The experiment that had failed me several times seemed be working, too.

The boss came in. As a part of the usual greetings, I said:

"Perfect weather out there."

He looked at the tree shadows outside the lab window and nodded,

"Yes. Just perfect."

Then he looked at me and said:

"Then why are we here?"