Mar 13 2007
Eppley Airfield: Slightly Awkward With Odd Touches
There are a few of you who share my fixation.
You may not admit it but I know you are out there.
In fact, you probably have noticed a glaring omission given my recent travels to Omaha, NE.
You’ve been thinking, “Doesn’t Omaha have an airport?”
You may have thought I’d forgotten all about it, that perhaps I went to some behavioral therapy to deal with my fixation.
Don’t worry; Ms. Q was once again the subject of averted eyes and sideways glances as she shot photos of the Women’s Room at the Eppley Airfield Airport.
The airport itself is small. From the exterior the Womens’ Restroom gives you the impression that the fixtures will be bright and modern.
This is not the case.
The restroom lighting is a bit dim and the dark red tiles paired with the black stalls remind me of a subway station.
The cheap plasticky-chrome coat hook was broken in the stall I used.
This forced me to pile my winter coat on top of my backpack.
This made me aware of the fact that it would be nice if the door were lower as I tried to keep the coat on top of the pack and propped against the door.
Of course if the coat hook hadn’t been broken I wouldn’t need a lower door.
The stall provided Seat-B-Clean Toilet Seat Wipes. I didn’t touch them and I thought providing them a bit odd.
I would think that the paper toilet seat covers would be adequate but maybe there are people who clean the seat AND use the covers.
Or maybe they just clean and forgo the cover.
Regardless, if the seat needed to be cleaned, I’d probably just move to another stall.
The toilet paper dispensers were just okay. I had to pull with both hands in order to evenly distribute the tension and avoid having useless shreds in my hands.
The toilet’s auto-flushing mechanism worked well. It neither caught me by surprise nor forced me to search for the manual button.
The automatic sinks required some serious semaphoring which always makes me feel dumb. It’s like the sink is laughing at you.
The soap dispensers were awkwardly placed and too low. Looks like they didn’t plan things all that well.
They could have:
- Raised the mirror and shelf.
- Removed the shelf.
- Used a smaller dispenser
- Placed the dispenser between the sinks.
Instead they chose the most inconvenient location.
Overall? It looked clean but felt dirty.
MsQ you have just solved one of the biggest mysteries of modern times: why it takes women so long in the bathroom!
Well, I’ve only shown one of the many reasons. I am planning to write an expose’ at some point. I’m working on gathering the evidence…
Yea! We’ve been waiting for one of your classic bathroom posts! Thanks for not disappointing us!
Could’ve been worse. Much much worse. I’m new to bathroom posts…do you take pictures of the vomitous ones as well?
Kristi: Yeah, it could’ve been much worse. I’ve seen worse. Experience has me avoiding gas station and public transportation bathrooms.
I don’t take photos of grossness. I’d have to Lysol my camera or something.
The whole bathroom thing started when I went to Europe years ago. Pre-digital camera days. Of course I had to take photos of the bidets!
I would think there’s a guy out there who could post about the mens’ room but it’s more awkward for them what with the whole stand at the trough-whip-it-out-eyes-forward thing. If I guy took a photo he’d probably get beaten up.
Oh my GOSH!!!!!!! How is it that I didn’t know you had a airport restroom blog!?!?!?!?!?!? This is a crime I tell ‘ya! A CRIME!!!!!!
Too bad I wasn’t with you - I wouldn’t gotten that men’s room pic!
Jill: Yeah, we have more in common than you thought, huh? I thought you had noticed that I have an ENTIRE CATEGORY titled “Bathrooms and Toilets”
When you began writing about bathrooms I thought it was pretty funny! Most people won’t admit to bathroom fixations but bring it up oh, over drinks or something and EVERYONE has some type of bathroom horror story. Or even great bathroom stories like, “I was in this 4-star hotel/country club/resort and and the restroom had cloth towels/a guy in a suit handing you towels/lotions/cologne…”
Traveling overseas is great for the ole bathroom photo collection. Or not depending on where. I didn’t have a digital camera when I went to Europe. My first intro to “squat toilets.”
Costa Rica - no seats. Toilets but the seats cost extra. In fact, toilets would be sold out on the streets - all lined up on a rug.
A friend pointed out that he noticed that a woman was coming outta the stall as my flash went off. The things I go through for these photos, I’m telling you!
It’s funny you know, but I’m still figuring out the whole blogging thing. I just now figured out what those “labels” are for - that I could put on a category list! So I guess I sort of just hadn’t explored your categories! I’ll have to now though.
Bathroom fixations - I wouldn’t have thought I had one either! It is totally amazing to me how much I’ve learned this first year of divorce (I was just thinking that while cleaning up the kitchen) about all KINDS of things! (myself included) It just amazes me, completely amazes me. I ****know**** I couldn’t have been a totally different person a year ago, but sometimes it feels like that’s the case.
At any rate, back to bathrooms. I wouldn’t have thought I had a bathroom fixation, but there are definitely bathrooms I dislike using. I don’t like bathrooms where the lock doesn’t work properly and I dislike bathrooms that have more than one entrance. I dislike bathrooms that have a sheer flimsy curtain over a window that faces a street or other public area. And of course dirt and grime I could do without, but if it came to choosing one or the other, I’d choose privacy over cleanliness. I figure there’s always hand gel!
Jill: A lot can happen in a year, especially after any life-changing/crisis event like a death, divorce, move. Such times tend to accelerate growth - think about the times where you may not have changed much at all, they were probably very day-to-day.
Your divorce probably forced you to feel, see, experience all sorts of new things and most people can’t help but change.
Back to bathrooms: I am not sure about privacy V cleanliness. I would guess privacy would be primary but it would depend on the level of grossness!