Bathroom Mirrors

Bathroom mirrors huh? Ok…. Where am I going with this? Wherever I want dear friend, wherever I want. For starters let’s head into the the water closet…

There are certain bathroom mirrors I have developed a relationship with. The obvious one would be the bathroom mirror in our house, however I do have relationships with the bathroom mirror at work, at my parent’s house, at church and my dear friend…the bathroom mirror at Greyfriars.

For those of you non-locals, Greyfriars is a local coffee shop downtown and practically the first place I visited when I came to Chattanooga 9 years ago. Aside—holy cow! 9 years! Wow, really? Really?! Wow. Now for those of you locals who are wondering where the catch is and why the less-than-exciting bathroom at Greyfriars has captured my attention, allow me to explain. During my college years I spent a lot of time at Greyfriars. I had friends and roommates who worked there, I helped close the shop, I mooched free coffee (you know my policy), I spent time studying, reading, talking, playing cards making up stories, developing theories on nuclear science (my first published work was concepted at Greyfriars!). Later when I became a working girl (no, not THAT kind of working girl!), I would spend my lunch breaks, my Saturday breakfast dates with girlfriends and the occasional sneak-over-in-the-middle-of-the-day-for-a-cup-of-awakeness trips at Greyfriars. In short I have spent a LOT of time in Greyfriars over the last 9 years and if you follow that train of thought logically (coffee shop = consuming large amounts of beverages= visiting the water closet) you can begin to understand my relationship with the Greyfriar’s bathroom mirror.

I was looking into that very bathroom mirror the other day, as I start a new chapter in my life having quit JG and traveled on into the wide world of creativity and credit unions (more on that later). I was thinking about what that mirror would say about me if it could comment on the changes over the past 9 years. I like to think that it would smile at me and say, “ I remember when you came in here 9 years ago before your freshman year at college”. Then we would have a chuckle about that stupid haircut I had which took forever to grow out.
“Ah yes” the mirror would say, “you have had a lot bad hair cuts over the past 9 years, quite a few of them self inflicted as I recall.” Then I would change the subject which would turn to the more momentous occasions that have happened over the years…getting a car sophomore year, living off campus, transferring to UTC, dating, traveling to Europe, getting my first job, getting engaged, buying a house, having 2 kids, giving them both up for adoption, (just checking to see if you were paying attention), getting married, getting 2 dogs, and most recently quitting to begin my new journey into the land of artistic banking (more on that later).

“Ah, yes” the mirror would say, “you have come a long way. But you still have a ways to go too. For starters, you are still doing stupid things to your hair (what perm?!), you still have your first gallery showing to accomplish, but congratulations on your first commission (I would interrupt with a, “thank you”), you still need to master the whole world peace thing, and the independently wealthy thing. Oh and you still need to work on your cartwheels and that whole falling up the stair thing that still happens. “Now that I think of it”, the mirror would say, “ you have a lot to work on; like your impatience, your mathematical abilities, your selflessness, not to mention you could be in better shape, maybe do some more yoga and run some more…”

At this point I would interrupt and make something up about how I have to go, late for…a meeting or something. Once outside the bathroom I comment to myself that the mirror doesn’t know what it is talking about and wonder why we were ever such good friends….