bathroom breaks

I got to thinking about bodily functions today. The reason? I really had to pee. Not only did I really have to pee, but I really had to pee at a really inconvenient time. Usually I pee when I go to lunch and then before I leave. But today, I had to pee BADLY 2 hours before I was scheduled to leave. That was a problem. I feared that if I ran to the bathroom and thus neglected my post at the front desk there would immediately be 8 calls and 5 visitors and then someone would get mad at me and ... etc.

Of course no rational person would be angry with an employee for having to pee, but thats just it. These fears are irrational. I fear being in trouble. The why is not important, it would be enough that I was in trouble.

In relaying these concerns via gchat with a friend of mine she said, "relax, everybody pees".

This got me thinking about a book that many have read and few forget, "Everybody Poops". The story is fairly simplistic: "An elephant makes a big poop. A mouse makes a tiny poop," and so the text goes, describing all sorts of creatures and people who eat and thus defecate. The most interesting and thought provoking of the pooping examples are the following; The pope poops. The president poops. The president's wife poops. The Queen of England poops. Everybody poops.

I must admit, such thoughts never occured to me, even as a semi-adult. I read "Everybody Poops" to my babysitting charge and was really astonished. "wow!", I thought, "Everybody really does poop!" Its a thought that is so obvious that you never really examine it. Such notable figures of the church and state. People you know, celebrities, your boss. Everybody! Some people I can easily imagine pooping. Like Britany Spears. She looks like a pooper. But others, say, Angelina Jolie. I cannot for the life of me imagine her pooping. It seems like such a plebian activity that would be so beneath her that she might not even know what it is. Likewise the Queen of England. Yet they must!

Intriguing, no?