first installment.

"... you're likely still sussing out a topic and approach, but for Friday, please have a pretty firm -- even if ... ultimately rough -- topic. Prepare a thesis and two central passages. Cough cough I'd like to go around the room and have you present your topic to the class ... "

Time moves slowly when the teaching turns into a repetitious monologue of worthless meditation on this or that. And I do mean 'this or that.'

I'd ask myself the value of remaining in class if I wasn't already on to a more interesting predicament. My nose. From the beginning of my time on earth, I have been subject to incorrigible allergies.

You could ask my mom: I'm allergic to anything that dust has touched, pine trees, and grass, either dewy or dry. Since second grade, I have been the sworn enemy of hayrides in apple orchards. Spring and autumn are truly trying seasons for me.

When I lived in Michigan, among the extreme temperatures, my sinuses suffered cruelly ... but a move to the temperate climate of Washington has nearly erased all symptoms. I neither sneeze nor congest -- amazing, I know! Well, until this year that is. This year is special.

Instead of rain in winter, we got snow and lots of it. Instead of rain in spring, we received a year's worth of Vitamin D, which led to the ultimate end of flowers, pollen, and plenty of cottonwood fluff. My allergies are a MESS. Top it off, I contracted the common cold. When you combine the two, it equates to sinusitis. That'd be me.

So, back to the story, I'm sitting in class not absorbing anything from lecture, listlessly popping my ears and hoping I'll hear the bell ring. I need relief and now! There is so much pressure in my sinuses passages, I'm starting to panic.

[ CHhhhrannng!! ]

Thank goodness. I'm the first out the door.

Down the hall and to the right, I slip inside the woman's restroom and dart into the first stall in search of tissue. I could care less about anything else. Except ...

Now the stalls in public restrooms are home to public greetings which, tasteful or no, are quite entertaining to read. My university has plenty such stalls. My curiosity always gets the best of me. Sometimes I write a note myself in response to touchy subjects, just to see the result.

What if I said ... any public restroom stall could be a witnessing tool?