The Dangers of Living Alone July 18, 2010
Posted by Onely in Bad Onely Activities.Tags: awkward moments with contractors, living alone
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Yeah yeah, all sorts of perils come with living alone: close encounters with burglars and choking on melba toast and slipping in the shower and being crushed by falling sofabeds (or maybe that last one’s just me). But the real danger I want to talk about is–accidentally peeing in front of strangers. Yes, it’s a hazard all you intrepid alone-dwellers need to know about. Or you do if you’re the kind of person who habitually pees with the bathroom door open because there’s no one around to see you.
How easy it is to drink too much soda water and then run to the bathroom and begin your autopilot pee routine, which involves pulling down your pants and sitting on the seat, but does not include shutting the door. How easy to forget that the plumber is upstairs working on your showerhead.
This happened to me the other day, and I only remembered I wasn’t alone when I heard his footsteps coming down the stairs towards the hallway where I sat on the pot in flagrante (I’m not sure what that means exactly, but how it sounds is how I felt). “Quick! Close the door!” you might have said, had I been the star of a wierd indie film and you an audience member. Ah, easier said than done.
Whenever I do try to close the door, the thick turquoise towel under the kitty litter box wedges the door halfway open. From my perch I could see the plumber’s thighs, then his torso, thumping downwards next to the bannister. Like in any good Bourne or Bruce Willis film (I’m scrapping the indie metaphor), I had about two seconds to make a crucial decision before the plumber’s head came into view and he turned towards the hallway–should I try to unwedge the towel and close the door, or should I yank my pants up?
I chose to unwedge. Copious Readers, what would you have done? I know you think you probably would not have been so silly (or, to take Freudian stab at it, so unconsciously exhibitionist?) to have left the door open in the first place. But I still felt it my duty to warn you.
–Christina
Photo credit: Flying Pig Beach Hostel
Onely.Org 
This is EXACTLY why I always close the door even though I live alone. Everyone laughs at me, but see, it’s a good strategy.
I leave the door open all the time, knowing there is a risk of my roommate coming home! I am sure I’m gonna get busted one of these times..then again, I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing her schedule so I’ve been lucky so far!
I have developed that habit over the past 11 years. Problem is that when I go for extended holiday and stay with family. Lately I caught myself slipping in my most recent holiday….. esp in the middle of the night ….. half asleep and you think you were in your single establishment…. It got me thinking of Lauri strategy during that holiday period. Its been 3 months since yet not doing it….. why take away the advantages of living single….
[…] 6. Plumbing, and having the right to use it however we like (well, usually). […]
Ahahah, I love this post. When I lived alone, I always peed with the door open and one time my then boyfriend was wandering around my apartment just as I was lifting my skirt and he’s all: “Aren’t you going to close the door?” Hahah…but really it was his fault, if he had just stayed in the living room where I left him, he would not have seen me in the bathroom.
[…] Although living alone is a privilege, it also brings serious risks–as described in this earlier post, where Christina encountered terror in the toilet. That same bathroom terrorized Christina again […]