Oh, this is ridiculous

This morning, I am sitting in the ladies' room at work, peacefully minding my own business, when the door begins to unlock. "Just a minute," I yell.

I stagger out. One of my coworkers, who has been under a LOT of stress due to general administration hostility, is standing there crying.

There is a brief shuffle at the door. I attempt to put a hand on her shoulder and say something helpful, but she brushes past me, marches into the ladies' room, locks the door, and sobs that she's not coming out.

She repeats it a couple of times, just in case.

I am in a bind. A colleague is in the ladies' room, crying. She says she's not coming out. What to do? At a more normal school I might have gone to the principal for help, but in this case that would be sort of...counterproductive. "Excuse me, Mr. Javert? Mr. Valjean is in the bathroom, crying..." Not that I want to compare our principal to Inspector Javert. I have a soft spot for Javert.

So I got one of her colleagues from the horrible reading program that sparked the whole damn mess. He's a friend of hers, I think. He apparently got another (female) teacher on the hall to go in, and talk to her. We got through the rest of the day.

Then I went to the doctor, was prescribed Paxil, told to lose weight (but gently and in passing, because it's Kaiser), and reminded that my eggs will start to drop off in three years, and I should remember to reproduce soon.

Paxil. This should be interesting. I now have Paxil, Xanax, and beta-blockers, but must knock off alcohol. Too confusing!