I am not Extremely Fat, but my BMI is definitely higher than it should be.   At the gym, I look at the program instructors and those college girls (who are obviously there to socialize and not actually work out) and sigh.  The last time I was that small I was…their age.  Then I look around and realize I’m pretty normal. 

So what’s wrong here?  In the changing room the restroom stalls are 30 inches wide.  I originally had a bunch of measurements in this post but decided it looked too much like math, so – if you do chicken wings with your arms, your elbows hit the sides of the stall before opening the wings over halfway.  That’s too narrow! 

It continues.  The door to the stall opens inward and passes within 2 inches of the front of the toilet.  Once you wrap yourself around the door and get in, you are trapped.  This must be what Alice felt like when she got stuck in Rabbit’s house.

Exiting is a whole other problem.  Squeeze close to the wall, you say?  Great idea!  But the tissue dispenser, one of those box-like contraptions holding a huge wheel of sandpaper, is mounted…guess where?  The best way to exit is to stand on the toilet until you get the door open (if you stay seated, your knees are in the way) and… well, I’m just not doing that.  Maybe it’s the gym’s way of giving us incentive, or one last program before we go home – something to improve our flexibility. 

The bottom line (excuse the pun) is that they don’t make these things for normal people.  The restrooms in the theater and other places I frequent are the same way, and the handicapped-accessible toilets are the size of my master bedroom.   I know that’s necessary, but why aren’t the designers  concerned about the comfort of other patrons?  Is this their way of discouraging us from using public restrooms?

A few men-friends overheard a conversation about this, and chimed in.  It seems they have similar issues, only with sinks and air-driers.  Apparently, everything’s made for men that are 5’6″ …so the tall guys have to stoop to wash their hands, and have VERY dry kneecaps.  They get water splashes where they don’t want them (so maybe that’s why the driers are so low).  The guys ask, since there are at least two sinks and air driers, why can’t there be one set for short guys and one for talls?  THAT would make too much sense.

They need Alice’s mushrooms in wall dispensers in every public restroom.  Packages of two - one shrink and one grow.  Take as needed.   Are we in Wonderland, or what?

Want a visual? Click on the link below – come back while you’re laughing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty4Etiykeek    

Writers ( yup, there’s a tie-in here) should know by now, being told all the time that we need to count our words, that it’s all about space.  But that’s a whole other blog, so …Coming soon!  SHRINK ME  II!

Catch you on the flip side!