choo-choo

This past weekend on the train to and from Paris, I had two of my worst nightmares come true.

#1 On the way there, Thursday evening I step into the ladies room/teeny toilet closet to do my business. I finish, soap up my hands, and then put them under the faucet, to wash them. On the trains, the faucets are those automatic ones, and these seem to have an especially long delay from the time you put your hand under to the time the water actually comes out. You can hear the noise it makes when it tries to squirt the water. It doesn't come out in streams. It comes out in squirts. But there is always this split second when I am waiting for the water to come out where a thought crosses my mind "the water isnt going to work and I'm going to be stuck with soap hands." So there I am, hands all soapy, gooey waving my hand under the faucet. I hear the sound. And...no water. I can actually feel a burst of air on my hands. Because obviously they are out of water. Go across the hall to the other bathroom, same thing. So I wipe the soap off of my hands and continue on my travels.

#2 On my way back to Dunkerque Monday afternoon with my friend Stephanie, I again step into the ladies room to grab some TP since I am out of keenex. Empty. Across the hall. Empty. One car down. Empty. Two cars down. Empty. One car up. Empty. and so on until I've walked just about the entire train and now have a few sheets of pink TP that feels like sand paper and I can finally blow my nose so that I can breathe.