Jan. 25: Potty all the time

I avoid public restrooms as much as possible. They're rarely clean enough and almost always smell bad. Rest areas and fast-food restaurants are the worst. Target stores, while pleasantly clean in their shopping areas, have filthy restrooms. And don't get me started on Honey Buckets and outhouses and porta-potties (oh my!).

My hang-up only got worse after I had kids. I know they're not as germ-conscious as I am and will touch anything and everything. Ugh. And ever since Katie has been potty-trained, she loves using public restrooms. No matter where we go out to eat or how long it's been since we left home, after she's sat at the table for a while she says she needs to use the bathroom. Drives me nuts.

My sister is the perfect traveling companion for me because she has the same aversions. Our mom, on the other hand, has a bladder the size of an acorn and stops at every public restroom she comes across. But she doesn't question our insistence that she use the alcohol hand cleaner when she gets back in the car, which is why we allow ourselves to love her anyway.

Like George Costanza, I keep a mental database of acceptably clean public restrooms. Nordstrom, some Las Vegas hotel/casinos, Disney parks, the Woodburn outlet mall... there aren't many. And while this probably makes it sound like I'm obsessed, it's actually something I give little thought to, mostly because I ignore bladder pressure. Don't be surprised when you hear I've died of kidney implosion syndrome. (I totally just made up that disease, but I hope it already exists because I don't want it named after me.)

Here's a lovely little web site that lets you locate clean public restrooms in many parts of the world. Best part: The Bathroom Diaries won't mock your OCD tendencies.