Invasion of Privacy

What would you do when you're faced with a situation where you felt helpless, you felt somewhat paralysed and didn't know what to do?  I'm sure some of us have gone through this before and have experienced many situations where these different feelings do and can come up.  

Today I had an experience where I did feel all of those feelings and thensome.  

It started out as a normal day here at work and then I decide to take a short trip to a place that I like to call my "smaller office."  The trip started out as I went to my normal spots, but all of them were occupied by other employees who seemed to be going to their small offices as well.

So what choices do I have, as nature was calling ... actually yelling at me.  I decided to go to one of the higher floors to see if there was anything available and usually they are quieter and you can spend the whole day up there.  I found one where there was one out of two available and made my way into the small office.  

One thing I noticed was that the door swung outward and I looked at the "lock" on the door, it was very shaky and I made a mental note that if there was a sudden impact on the door or someone would try to open it ... that it would simply give way.  My neighbor was very quiet ... and as nature was yelling at me, I was trying to be as quiet as he, but it was to no avail.  Nature yelled, and I yelled back.  That feeling of having a neighbor in these situations who is being quiet makes things uncomfortable, you try to be as silent as possible, but sometimes that's just impossible, then you start to wonder what they are thinking and then you remember what you were thinking when you were in the situation but you were the silent neighbor and how your face cringed with each noise the person next door did.  I waited for him to leave, but it seemed as if he was situated there for a while.  I could hear people coming in the door, then immediately leaving because they saw that both doors were closed and occupied, I guess at that particular time, nature made it's roll call to a lot of us here.  

I won the battle of patience and my neighbor decides to finish up and leave.  As he was leaving, he opened his door and as he did that the worst feeling came over me.  It was a feeling of not knowing what to do next, that reaction of fight or flight came and I had to make a choice as to where I would go next and what I should do.  

What would you do if you saw this scene about 3 feet in front of you, with your pants down around your ankles?

This picture was taken after the fact and when everything was over and done with.  It's a reenactment as I would not have been able to take this while everything was going on.  

So what would do you???  Good thing for me is that I noticed the shaky lock mechanism, if you could even call it a lock.  I would have had better luck putting tape on the door and the frame to keep it closed.  

As the door swung outward ... yes outward, a panic in me started to set in.  It would have been easy if it swung inward, but that wasn't my luck today.  I could see my neighbor through the opening of the door now and I'm sure he could see me looking into the mirror and seeing the door swinging open!  I quickly decide to leap forward to close the door ... but there's no handle on the door, only a small turning metal part that "locks" the door.  I couldn't grab onto that and had to think quickly.  

See it wasn't just a matter of finding a place to hold the door and close it ... but time was also a factor here.  The door was swinging open more and more, the longer I waited the more exposed I would be, and the harder it would be for me to find a way to close it as well!

I ended up grabbing the hook on the top of the door where you use to hang your jacket or coat and slowly pulling the door closed and putting it in the "locked" position again.  

For that brief moment after the sweat drips off your forehead do you find peace.  Then you rush to finish your business because this could be a recurring issue.  

I think this is actually one of my worst fears coming back to life.  I say "back to life" because this isn't the first time this has happened to me.  The first time was in an airport and the same situation happened when a neighbor slammed the door shut, and mine opened outward, but there was some complications with this as my bags were in the way and I couldn't lean forward enough to grab the door as it swung FULLY open.  The good thing was that it opened towards the urinals and there was no one there.  I leaned as far foward as I could trying to reach the door but with no luck ... what felt like an eternity, but I'm sure was only a few seconds, 30 seconds at most, the door started to swing closed again and I was able to lunge forward to close it.

These things always seem to happen to me!  Becareful out there, and bring some Scotch tape for those doors!

+ mon