Learning New Things

It was a little over a year ago that I began my first blog with the following sentences:

My roommate has inspired me to recycle regularly, eat whole wheat english muffins instead of bagels for breakfast each morning, and now to start a blog. What do I have to say that is blogworthy? I'm not too sure, but here's what's on my mind today.

Who's to say if anything I've posted here is truly "blogworthy," but I definitely have had no shortage of things to say. And while I missed the official one year anniversary here on aisle life, I do feel like commemerating it in some way. I think the best way to do that would be to write about a huge improvement in my daily living that was also inspired by my roommate: reading on the toilet.

I'm sure that many of you are old hands at this, but it never crossed my mind to take a book or magazine into the bathroom. The first time I did this, I announced it to my roommate, who only smiled the proud smile of any teacher, then hunkered down to await further progress. It did not take long before I became an avid toilet reader.

Now we keep magazines on a shelf in the bathroom at all times, and I never hesitate to bring in a book. And after reading the essay "Chamber Plots" (which I actually read while sitting on the couch,) I also began thinking about our bathroom library. Did we have a good selection? I think I can say yes, though beyond our stacks of National Geographic, Dwell, Vogue, Elle, Lucky, and New York, there are only four little books, including Gutsy Women: Travel Tips and Wisdom for the Road. Really, what more could you want on a little trip to the bathroom?

Among the life lessons learned this year, many of which I have written about right here, the toilet reading might be one of the most important in that it's a little reminder to get over myself and just enjoy the moment.