Technology...

I realized tonight what a wonderful thing technology is...

Earlier tonight, I was using the restroom at my apartment. When I went to reach for toilet paper, I realized that I was 100% out. There was none under the sink, there was no scraps on the cardboard; nothing. For guys that's not always a huge issue, but for women? There's just no way around it. As a woman, you can't not have toilet paper. Now, usually I have a purse with a little stash hidden away for emergencies like this but I'm not in the habit of carrying my purse with me wherever I go in my apartment - it's just not something I do. So, I try yelling for my husband to help me. It was no use. He was in the kitchen cooking up a storm (which I'm completely okay with!), which typically means that he had the exhaust fan above the stove sucking up smoke as fast as it would go, various things sizzling in a pan, the hall bathroom fan trying in vain to rid the house of the smoke the stove exhaust fan couldn't get, and the TV on and turned up so he can hear it above all of the other competing noise. This in turn meant that I could scream for him to rescue me from my paperlessness until I got hoarse - it wouldn't do me any good. I'd just be out of toilet paper AND a voice. So, as I sat there, I tried to think creatively. What could I use? A magazine? No, that wouldn't be absorbent. The cardboard from the tp roll? Nope, too rough. The middle eastern habit of using one hand? No, too gross for this American girl. Then, it dawned on me. I had a cell phone.

Now, I'm not one of those people who talks on a cell phone while they use the restroom. I typically find that rude and I wouldn't want to hear someone else's bodily functions if I were talking to them, so I don't do it to other people. The reason I had a cell phone is because I had just happened to stick it in my back pocket as I was walking into my apartment. So, I picked it up, dialed my husband's cell phone, and prayed he'd answer it from two rooms away.

"Why in the world are you calling me?" was the answer I got. "Could you bring me some toilet paper," I asked. "I would really prefer to not have to use a page from Newsweek..." I heard a sigh, and he replied. "Just use one of the Kleenexes in there - you know the box you put in there Sunday night?"

Thank goodness I had my cell phone.