The Ladies Throne Journal

I've always had an obsession with reading the writing on the wall...literally. Maybe it’s because I love words and the way different people put them together. Maybe it’s because I admire unique handwriting, and the angles and directions the words seem to travel when given an empty space to invade. Or maybe it’s just because I find it much more interesting to read what the poets in women’s bathrooms all over the nation have to say, instead of listening to a crying jag outside the stall, brought on by an ex-boyfriend’s comments and some whiskey.

The women’s bathroom is almost always an experience, especially when it’s located in a place with alcohol, live music and men. These three factors alone can be a woman’s best friend one minute and her worst nightmare the next. It’s a place where women escape to gossip, bitch, cry, laugh, puke, reapply dull makeup, smoke up, criticize, caution, console and last but not least, pour their hearts out to strangers. This leads to the importance of reading what’s written on the wall.

What’s written on the stall walls around you can be quite enlightening if you take a moment to soak it all in. I will say that I always find it helpful to carry various colors of Sharpie markers, just in case you feel inspired to leave some type of insignia or words of wisdom to the stall walls around you. There’s always a constant stream of communication happening, and I’m not referring to “breaking the seal” after you’ve had 5 rum and cokes (feels like eternity!) or the toilet paper train you’ve got going on as you exit the stall sanctuary.

I’ve began to snap photos of the words I find in various bathrooms all over the place. Incredibly strange? Probably. I look at it as a fun way to document candid thoughts. It’s always interesting how the women by the sinks or in the other stalls, who continuously chitchat between the barriers, become very quiet after I take a picture inside my stall with my flash on. I chose to include the photo above to share in this post. I took it without the flash on, because I felt it would better describe what is said…

”I’m going to do it again tonight.”

Who hasn’t been there, right in that moment? The words could have been written with an entirely different meaning, but just like the lyrics in a song, connections can be drawn from a thousand different avenues. So next time you’re in an interesting looking stall, take a few minutes to read the writing on the wall…unless there’s a long line, in which your lingering could have very scary, confrontational consequences with very scary, confrontational , drunk women.