A Post without a Point

The doorway into Tiffany's flagship store
New York City

Here's the situation -- I'm a writer, but writing is not enough. A writer has to promote her work and that, somehow, includes promoting herself. According to them -- that is the them that speak at writing conferences and write books about writing -- writers should be on at least three platforms.

Platform? Platform? Like the platform a politician runs on? Like the one that supports your waterbed? Maybe the one that gives you a place to stand on scaffolding? "What kind of platform?" you may well ask. As do I.

Those How-To folks in the writing business mention Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Goodreads, blogging, ad infinitum. Facebook I use to keep up with my family and the friends I really care about keeping up with. Twitter I'm trying, but I take a really engaging photo with my phone then forget to attach it to the corresponding tweet so the tweet makes no sense at all. I keep getting requests from Linkedin and I always honor them, but I don't have the vaguest what to do with them or what they're doing with me. Pinterest is dangerous. It's like YouTube. If I click on it, pretty soon it's dinner time and I haven't written a word or washed the dishes. Goodreads. Now this one I understand. Well, not how it will help promote my writing, but it adds to my already very long list of books I want to read.

That brings us to blogging. This platform I actually like. It gives me a place I can put my flash fiction out there for people to read. And, yes, like most writers, that's why I write -- for people to read. BUT when you put something on your blog it's considered published so you cannot then submit it to most publications or contests.

And I've been busy writing for submission so I haven't had much time to do my blog. I'm trying some travelogues because of the bloggers I admire who do that sort of thing -- Anabel's Travel Blog and my cousin's wife Debbie's blog about their full-time RV living.

You'd think I wouldn't have to tax my writing brain for these. After all I'm just showing and telling. Right? Wrong! Telling, I can do. It's the showing that takes me way too long. I haven't figured out how to get the pictures on the blog page like I want them. Maybe I'm unreasonable in my aspirations or maybe I'm just inept.

But that's not what I come here to talk about.

I read a book once. Actually I've read lots of books and some of them more than once. Anyway -- this book was a travelogue about bathrooms. I tried to look it up on Amazon, but that was a long time ago and it may not have seen a very large distribution.

The Ladies' in that book that stuck in my mind was the one at Tiffany's in New York. (Hence the photo at the top of this post.) The book described an elegant Ladies' Room complete with comfortable couches, elegant mirrors, and an attendant in an anteroom quite separate from the necessaries. Needless to say that Ladies' is on my bucket list, right along side the Aurora Borealis and the Statue of Liberty. Oh, yes, and the Lions out front of the Metropolitan Library in NYC.

Since reading that book I have made a semi-serious study of public facilities. And today, I visited the best one so far in the Denver area.

I took my daughter Grace to the dentist this morning. Any trip to the dentist triggers an uncontrollable urge for chocolate and coffee. The French Press was the best possible outcome for such a morning. Not only do they have wonderful filled chocolate cupcakes and mocha coffee, but their Ladies' is great. It's actually two largish rooms for either gender. They have a changing table for those little ones and grab bars for us older ones. They are clean and have paper products. Two things you expect, but are too often disappointed by their absence.

All this inspired reflections on bathrooms we have known.

Grace remembered the Ladies' Room at the Masonic Temple in Guthrie, Oklahoma. It had an anteroom with comfortable seating, lovely mirrors, and a baby grand piano.

My all-time favorite was the Ladies' at the Magnolia Cafe, a Creole restaurant in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately no longer there. But the memories! The Ladies' Room was a destination in and of itself. There was a huge mural on one wall. A photograph of a bicycle race. Naked men in a bicycle race. Now if that won't make you laugh out loud and bring you back to show your friends, I don't know what will.

Then we both thought of the City Bites burger joints in the Oklahoma City area. Maybe they have them elsewhere. Their Ladies' had one wall that was a one-way window into the restaurant. Those in the dining area couldn't see into the facilities, but those in the facilities had an unobstructed view into the dining area. Talk about a shy bladder! And to be honest. I don't remember noticing if it was clean or not. I only went in there once and I didn't stay.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure this will promote my writing, but I had fun. Now for some lunch and then I'll get back to work. I've got a short story and a book to finish.