Toilet paper, Sweat and Cato

Hey. Today I would like to talk to you about toilet paper.

I have been lucky enough to visit Europe a few times. One summer, my family and I visited France for 2 weeks. We lived in a tent on a campsite with a lot of very red Irish people (They do not tan well at all) as well as some English, French, Germans, Spanish, Canadians and Moroccans. It was on the whole a very nice trip, and something that my family found very funny were the various attitudes among the different nationalities with regards to toilet paper. The campsite had 1 unisex block of toilets for about 500 people. When I say toilets, I do not mean the form of toilet you are accustomed to; i.e. with a seat.. No, these toilets were simply holes in the floor with concrete footprints on either side for the sake of accuracy.. These fine facilities, which failed to meet the approval of any of the 5 senses obviously considered themselves above the new stringent EU hygiene regulations, did not feel the need to provide toilet paper. It was therefor necessary to for anyone wishing to uses the facilities to walk through the entire camp carrying hygiene equipment.

The English were the funniest. They without fail would traverse the path to their destination head down, and sheepishly carrying the roll beneath a towel. The Irish were different and seemed almost proud. The Canadians were a lot like the English, only less red and the continentals did not care at all.

In case you are wondering, I did not spend all, or even a few minutes of my time watching people perform bodily functions. It is just funny to see red faced, towel clad Englanders walk as quickly as possible without drawing attention to themselves through a group of drunk and taunting Moroccans, or an Irelander lifting two rolls on a stick like barbells. The reason for this brief essay is for the consideration of anyone who would suggest that there is no such thing as national character.

Today I had a busy day. It started out with a look through an index of the saints and a prayer to St. Joe for help finding work. I was then about to leave the house when I got a call from the window framing company I had applied to weeks ago informing me that I did not have the job. At least it was nice of them to let me know. I left the house and made my way to Keene State to ask the grounds department if they had any jobs. The guy told me no, but asked if I had any sort of a manual labor background and if I was a KSC student. I answered yes on both counts, and mentioned that Nate Hardy had told me to ask him. He said that he had something for me in the fall, which was nice, only now is not the fall at all. Not to be put off from my search, I made my way to main street. I applied to be a sandwich artist at Subway, which is a good job for me because I did not know that anyone else but me considered putting meat and cheese on bread an art. I also got an application for Corner News. I was told to come in tomorrow at around 11 to give my application to the boss and have a little interview.

After all of that fun activity, I returned home. An hour later, I resumed my search. I went back to the NH Dept. of Employment Security in the hopes that they could help me. When I entered the building, I encountered one of the members of my Catholic music group who evidently now works there. He gave me five sheets of paper with numbers of people to call. All but one turned out to be no good.. The one that was good was also odd.. It was odd because as I called the number, I could hear a phone go off behind me. When I turned around, I noticed that the sound was coming from Bentley's Roast Beef.. I had not even noticed it before. I applied, and the heavily accented and gold wearing boss told me he would get back to me. If he does, perhaps I should wear more gold to the interview as all the employees I saw appeared to heavily adorned with graven gold imagery.

Too long? Perhaps.. See ya.