NYC Wedding 'Wetting'

June 7, 2009

Place: Riverview Restaurant, 50th Ave, Long Island City, NY

Circumstance: We came down to Pier 2 at Long Island City to attend my niece’s wedding. Beautiful day. Sunny, very warm…nice drive down from out of state (Hey, are NY roads always full of potholes??- YUP!). The brunch reception was across the street from the pier. Being New York, I think I was expecting a ‘fancy-schmancy’ room, so I was surprised by my visit to the ‘john’. (my camera wasn’t co-operating that day…not focusing right, sorry).

My Impression: Eclectic shaped room, very angular, although it was ‘romantically (?) lit up”, there was a wide band of mirrors that ran around the room at chest level, on every angled wall. I’m knd of glad it wasn’t at face level or I’d have thought someone was walking towards me in the dark. The sink (actually, a ‘trough’) could have been ‘artsy’, except for the stains…. But, Ahh, they have soap! A PLUS!!

So in I go, to the stall that was free (on the right). At first I couldn’t find the toilet paper. To the left of the toilet was a stand with a ‘large filigree candle holder’ on the top of it (I was soon to figure out that the TP—the only rolls, were wrapped, and on the shelf above the toilet. Realizing the ‘holder’ had an empty core in it, I grabbed one off the top shelf and, of course I unwrapped one, removed the empty core and plopped the new one in it’s appropriate place! NOW I can go. Of course I lined the seat! Now, hearing others enter, I hurried along, and then got ready to flush.

Oh no.       I can’t push the lever.         I REALLY can’t!             REALLY!!

Uh oh… it CLICKED really hard, but no flush. What do I do now…? I certainly can’t ‘leave the stall’ in its present state. And I don’t dare try and ‘flush’ again, and risk breaking the handle. So, quietly, I lifted the lid off the tank, stick my hand in the water (Hey! It’s clean, isn’t it?)and pull up the lever. FLUSH! Yea! Let me outa here!!

Oops…Now to wash my hands. With someone else at the same sink. Only we are both trying to use the ONE soap dispenser on MY side! I already had soap in my hands, so I had to back up, hoping not to drip the soap on the floor.

I let the older woman get her soap, then we both had to figure out the faucet handles … or should I say ‘levers’ (see small insert below). You had to pull this stem from the round ‘plug’, then turn it, or …pull it, or… push it. whatever. (It took both of us a few times to try this, looking pretty stupid, but we got it!)

Ps. And I did tell the one next in line that the toilet handle didn’t work.