What’s the big deal? It’s not like I’m setting my sandwich on the edge of the urinal. I set my food or drink on a shelf that is on the opposite wall from the sinks. I’m not making two trips to the break room / restroom area when I can do it in one.
This is poetry, by the way.
I have been known to drink beer/eat a bowl of chili/play guitar/talk on the phone/sleep while on said shitter.
I’ve probably taken an open can of soda into the bathroom once or twice, but I make an effort not to. I’ve more often, though not frequently, taken unopened cans of soda into the bathroom when I’m stopping on the way back from the kitchen.
In either case, said soda waits for the duration on the sinks, and do not accompany me to any variety of elimination porcelain.
Generally, though, I try not to take food or beverages into the bathroom, because I don’t enjoy associating the smell of other people’s shit and piss with stuff I plan to eat, whether or not actual shit or piss molecules attach themselves to my consumables. Yick.
Where do you go to brush your teeth?
I’m an obsessive freak who bathes/showers 3 or 4 times daily. Food in the bathroom? I can’t do it. My toothbrushes are in a container and in the medicine cabinet. I’m a 'phobe.
I came close, once, in my own home. I had a bottle of Guinness in my left hand, and I had to retrieve something from the bathroom counter. My husband laughed at me as I stuck my right hand in… and held the bottle in my left hand, stretched out as far away as I could get it from the bathroom door. He still teases me about it.
Yes, I’m certain there are a million filthy things I likely do each day. It’s my own weird hangup. Bathrooms = place people go to dispel waste. Beverage = drinkey goodness. My stubborn mind doesn’t like to meld drinkey goodness with waste dispelling room. I know my drinkey goodness will eventually wind up there naturally. I just don’t want to take it there until it’s ready. 
You wound me, sir. I wash my hands only as much as is reasonable and prudent: after visiting the WC, and before cooking or eating. No more, and no less. I am far from a new incarnation of Adrian Monk.
My only irrational compulsion in life is that when climbing or descending a staircase I mentally count the steps and feel a strange satisfaction if the number is even versus a vague unease if the number is odd.
Oh, and I make sure to chew each bite of food an equal number of times on each side of my mouth.
…
Okay, I will concede perhaps I am a little Monk-y.
Er, that didn’t come out right.
Point is, I’m no germophobe. It’s just that comestibles in the toilet are yucky.
Yeah, it kinda goes in hand with the bathroom sprays. You’ll find them in Forest Pine, Powder and Meadow Mist. Less frequently will you find a bathroom freshner scented Bacon.
But if I ever did, I’d buy a case of it.
Nothing smells as good as bacon. Nothing.
Really? I thought Push Button, Receive Bacon was standard in bathrooms now.
Why? Doesn’t he know how hard it is to set down a Guinness?
Last week in the men’s room at work, I saw a guy brushing his teeth while using the urinal. One hand on the brush, other hand guiding the stream. Shock and awe indeed.
So, I guess that Gloryhole action is out for a lot of you?
Not only that, but I drink the hot water that comes out of my pipes!
I’m mad! Mad, I tells ya!
My insanity has mellowed over the years. I do not remember visiting the restrooms during my school years. I can now use any facilities present and I rejoice in my maleness that allows me to have no contact whatsoever with the porcelain when necessary.
I unconsciously avoid bringing any food or drinks into restrooms. I believe I would not abandon a comestible, but I would keep it with me at all times and never leave it on the sink or even a nearby shelf.
I still make a cursory wipe of the toilet seat before sitting, though practically it’s only a psychological guard against any germs. Conversely, in the toilet, flatulence is as tolerable as it is unavoidable. Bodily smells have been with us since birth, and a toilet is a common getaway from the constant struggles of the day, so the familiarity has usually never bothered me and can sometimes be comforting. However, if we meet in person, please do not try to make me feel more comfortable!
A recent thread asked if you would close the door on your own restroom against your wife. I didn’t answer there - We rarely do. I’m sharing every other trust, scrape, scratch, boil, and fluid with my wife so there’s nothing left to hide.
Anne Neville, I too remember the Myth Busters episode when they tested germ spreading in a restroom and found that the control down the hall had just as much bacteria. Germs are with us everywhere. It’s just prudent to minimize instead of eliminate them.
slight hijack, a shrink once mentioned that the counting thing meant something about you, but never said what it was. (seemed to be something besides OCD because he specifically was talking about the counting thing) I’ve always wanted to know cause I do that too.
I drink beer in the shower, and take a cup of coffee into the john here at work (it’s a really low traffic restroom). I’ve taken beer into bathrooms at bars and casinos. I’m breathing the same air that’s in contact with my beverage, and if my mouth happens to open while I’m in there, I get that air in my mouth, too. As long as I don’t get too carried away while using the facilities, I figure I’m OK.
I occationally eat while I’m taking a bath, does that count? Of course, I’m at home in the tub, not bathing in the urinal at work.
The only time I’ve taken a beer into a bathroom in a bar is at a seedy place downtown that does that weird “urinals are ice-buckets” thing. I was drunk enough that I thought it’d be a wheeze to leave an unopened beer “chilling” in there.
Can’t remember where it was I saw ice in the urinals… some bar or restaurant. Never occured to me to put a beer in there!