The Brady Bunch taught me that sharing a bathroom was so bad that it was second only to eating liver and onions for dinner. The brothers and their sisters were always whining about waiting their turns for the shower, the sink, and the toilet (Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!) Horror stories of untidiness, lack of counter space, wet towels on the floor, and most of all cold showers seem to be the characteristic complaints of sharing bathrooms.
Though this is pretty much (exactly) true in my case, finding some way to harmoniously share a bathroom with my little brother the past 14 months became the grounds for a defining moment in our sibling friendship. In fact, I might go so far as to say it is the reason I consider Connor one of my best friends today.
Though we can never keep our shared bathroom clean for more than 12 hours (sorry mom), sharing this personal space has taught me how to quietly deal with piles of wet towels, golf polos, and socks on the floor, and the toilet seat constantly up. Meanwhile, I'm sure it has taught him to deal with hair in the sink, hot curling irons, and the toilet seat constantly down. During this past school year at 7:36am on the dot, the shower would wake me up and I would lie in bed for 20 long minutes waiting my turn for my now-lukewarm 5 minute shower. Some mornings when Connor and I were both hurrying, we would stand together while we groggily brushed our teeth in front of the mirror, but usually our exchange was limited to "Good morning" "Good morning" "Have fun at school all day, I only have 1 class... and it starts at 10:00" "You too, wait.......you suck". And then we'd laugh and he'd run upstairs and out the door. (And I would dilly dally around the house for a few hours and somehow manage to sneak into class just in the knick of time).
The evenings, though, are the reason I have liked sharing a bathroom with my brother. When I would come home after my long day at school, or work, or be sneaking in late at night after an evening at Sean's (sorry mom), inevitably Connor was always awake. I swear that boy doesn't sleep. He was always ready to tell me his latest joke, or juicy high school gossip (be jealous), talk about Camp Reed, or just sit together on my bed and Stumbleupon.
Eventually though, we would force ourselves to get sleep. So we'd lazily walk to the bathroom together, brush our teeth, and wash our faces. It was this time that we'd half-jokingly get mad at the other person for being messy or invading each others' side of the counter (usually me getting in trouble for that. So what?) and try to continue our riveting, tired-jollies-stories with mouths full of toothpaste. Then we'd rinse our faces, meanwhile drenching the counter because the sink is not wide enough, and complain that all the towels to dry our cleaned faces were still wet and on the floor. This whole scenario seriously played out like 5 nights a week. You'd think we'd learn.
Then, after retreating to our own rooms, we'd still try to continue our conversation and laughter through the wall until one of us finally dozed off. It was then that the reason I love sharing a bathroom would sometimes happen.
Occasionally, Connor or I would have to get up in the middle of the night and use the restroom. At this time, one of us would take the dry erase marker (you don't have one in your bathroom??) from his drawer and write a secret note on the mirror to the other for the morning. Sometimes it was just a hello, sometimes a joke, sometimes a reference to something from earlier conversations, and occasionally, something that was left in the toilet (sorry mom). After I wrote mine, it always left me with a little excitement or laughing (because I always wrote funny notes, duh) because I imagined a groggy Connor hurrying in for his shower the next morning at 7:36 and laughing from my hilarity.
Anyways, this awesome bond from sharing a basement bathroom together has (weirdly) been one of my favorite parts about living at home the last 14 months. And when Connor heads to Camp Reed in 10 days to live the best summer of his life thus far, I am going to miss the heck out of him and his mirror notes. But that won't stop me from enjoying my first hot shower in 14 months! ;)
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