The Southern Bostonian: The Boyfriend and the Bathroom

Ok....so you all may have noticed, I don't really come on here and post a lot of dialogue or talk about anything negative or complain. Honestly I think it's kind of annoying when people use social media to complain about stuff or when they post a lot of negative material - those are things to share with close friends and family and not the entire Facebook/Twitter world (in my opinion). But today I reached a breaking point and I have to 'vent' about (and raise awareness of) this issue in a public capacity because it NEEDS to be addressed.

Guys (yes, I'm talking to you the male species) when you're at a girl's apartment, for the love of all that is polite and gentlemanly PUT THE TOILET SEAT DOWN. I don't care what you do in your own apartment - that's your space. I don't care what you do in public shared restrooms (although I would argue the nice thing to do would be to put it down). But when it comes to MY apartment - any girl's apartment - where I'M the one paying the rent, please use common courtesy and put the freakin lid down (I definitely don't need it left up).

This little tirade all started a few months ago when my roommate - I'll call her Luann - started dating this guy...let's call him Derrick. Luann and Derrick started dating back in October and after a couple months, Derrick was a regular visitor to our humble abode. I noticed that Derrick had the habit of leaving the toilet seat and lid up after using our facilities, but wanting to be 'nice' and 'accommodating' I didn't say anything. After several months of this, though, I'd had about enough, so I sent him this tame little note:

Shew! Slightly awkward to have to write that/send it, but at least I got my point across/wishes known. Problem solved, right? Wrong.

A few nights later I woke up at around 2 am to use the restroom, and in my sleepy stupor and in the dark, I failed to notice that the seat and lid were left up. I'll let my follow up note to Derrick taped to the bathroom mirror tell you what happened:

I even made sure to ask him - in person! - if he'd seen my note and he said 'yes, I'm sorry' and I thought to myself 'Shew! Glad that got taken care of.' Ooooooooooh but wait....

So I get home tonight after working late at the office and put away the dishes in the dishwasher, pack my lunch, and head to the bathroom to take my shower and get ready for bed...and lo and behold, wouldn't you know it the seat was up! So what do I do? I walk into the living room where Luann and Derrick were curled up on the couch watching HGTV and asked ever-so-sweetly 'hey Derrick - could you please come put the seat down so I can use my bathroom?' He gives me this look like I've got 4 eyes and no manners whatsoever - couldn't I see he's sitting on the couch? With Luann?? Watching HGTV??? What an inconvenience to walk all the way to the bathroom to put down the toilet seat for the crazy girl who actually lives in the apartment (he *actually* rolled his eyes at me - can you believe it?!)! Oh but Derrick...if you'd just taken the one second of your time to reverse the action you'd committed to get the toilet seat up after using our facilities in the first place, we wouldn't be here!

So now...here we are....late at night...with an overly-annoyed Emily doing something she vowed to herself she would never do - using her blog to complain.

But I'm not *just* complaining - I'm trying to raise awareness of a very important issue, one that extends beyond trying to teach guys to be respectful of others' places. No no, there is something even more grave that comes up from this faux pas. Do you, dear reader, have any idea how many germs are sent out when you flush your toilet without putting the lid down??? Let this short Youtube clip explain: