Cleaning Crisis

Back by popular demand, and necessity since these anecdotal occurrences keep happening to me.

I got an extra toothbrush and toothpaste and brought them to work this summer. I got the idea from one of the head honchos at work and thought it would be a beneficial idea for my own personal hygiene.  On the typical day, I brush once after breakfast and again after lunch/in the afternoon.

Yesterday was like any other Tuesday, I suppose breakfast was a tad later than usual, and then I had errand to run, but finally got around to brushing my teeth at 10ish. I headed into the bathroom, wet my toothbrush, applied toothpaste and began the brushing process.

Within 30 seconds of starting, the fire alarm went off. Oh great!

This isn't really anything like high school or college for that matter, if the fire alarm goes off you can be fairly sure that something is actually happening. Probabilistically, it is not someone trying to get out of a test or avoiding a presentation, I knew that I probably should get out of the building. So I had to stop brushing, immediately. I didn't even rinse my toothbrush, I was secretly hoping that it wouldn't be a big deal and I could quickly finish brushing.

Yeah, not so much. I headed down the 11 stories of the building, in one of the two staircases. I waited outside for 15 minutes, separated from my group since I was in the bathroom. I finally got to head back inside, and headed back up en masse in the freight elevator to our floor. Lo and behold it was packed, but that wasn't really a problem for me.

The real problem was not getting my saliva and toothpaste covered toothbrush on anybody. This proved very difficult on both the stairs with the ups and downs, starts and stops, as well as the elevator, which was perhaps too full. All the while, holding my toothbrush and toothpaste like an umbrella handle in my hand.

Spoiler Alert: I was successful! No one got a toothbrush in the back or front or anywhere!

-MJM