Boston Public (Restrooms)

So anybody who has UC knows that when the time comes to use the restroom there is not always one readily available. I was visiting Boston one day and experienced just how hard it can be to find a restroom even in a large, highly developed region like Boston (it probably would have been easier in an underdeveloped third world nation).

I do not like to take chances once I feel that I need to use the restroom and begin the search process immediately. My mom and wife were with me and they wanted some Starbucks coffee. I knew of a Starbucks about two blocks away and, thus the journey began. It took a little time to go those two blocks because my 2 year-old daughter wanted to walk. When we got to Starbucks they said they did not have a restroom even for customers. I saw that there was a Dunkin Donuts across the street and just left my family at Starbucks to go use the restroom there.

Dunkin Donuts has often been my refuge since I have had UC. They are great: always have restrooms, usually do not mind if you just come to use the restroom, usually they are clean, and, in New England, there is a Dunkin Donuts every two street blocks. Well, I found the one (and maybe the only) Dunkin Donuts without a public restroom. It is in Boston across from a Starbucks.

I decided to walk further down the street to find a restroom. I stopped in a University dorm and could see a restroom, but the guard monitoring the hallway to the restroom had no sympathy for me and instead gave me directions to a public restroom in a nearby mall – three blocks away. Fine, I went to the mall. I forgot to mention that this was a Sunday morning and when I arrived at the small shopping mall the restroom was locked and had a sign on it to get tokens from a retailer. No retailers were opening for another hour. Tough luck.

By now I was a few blocks from a hotel that I was familiar with and I went into the lobby to use their restroom. Of all days, they had a plumbing problem in the men’s restroom, so I went to ask the attendant at the desk if I could use the women’s restroom. He asked, “Why don’t you just use the restroom at the Starbucks next door.”

And yes, finally, this restroom was available. As I sat in the restroom I thought, if an employee asked that I buy something to use the restroom, would they believe that I have a Starbucks caramel apple cider waiting for me across town at another Starbucks? Somebody should write a travelers’ book for the porcelain bound so that finding a restroom while traveling does not turn into a wild goose chase.