When you give Bekah a plunger...

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You should have seen my Mom’s face when she came home from the Christmas party.  The kitchen counter was completely cleared off, everything was scrubbed, dishes were in the washer. But then she noticed that the whole place smelled like bleach and there were containers of water everywhere and I wasn’t wearing any pants.

They left me home alone last night.

And I was in a helpful mood.

One of my family members has an affinity for clogging the toilet.  It’s like a tradition.  And when I went upstairs, lo and behold, it was clogged again.

“I’ll fix it,” I thought.  “I’ll unclog it.”

I’ve unclogged it a dozen times before.
No big deal.

I plunged a couple times but it is a pretty stubborn toilet.  All I had for my efforts was some shredded toilet paper.

“I’ll add some more water,” I thought.  “That usually works”

So I flushed the flusher to get a little extra water in the bowl…

And that’s when everything went wrong.

The water filled the bowl.  Then it overflowed the bowl.  Then it flooded the entire bathroom floor. No exaggeration.  It was just pouring out like a fountain.  And nothing I could do would make it stop. I threw everything out of the bathroom, dialed my dad, sloshed around in the giant toilet papery puddle.
I got his answering machine.

Half inch of water covered the floor.

“I’m gonna flood the entire house,” I thought.  “I’m gonna flood it with poop water.”

Then I remembered to pull off the toilet top.  Yanking the pump finally made it stop.

But there was SO MUCH WATER.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it.  I ran downstairs to find water gushing out of the ceiling like sprinklers.

Panic.  I imagined the ceiling coming down, flooding everywhere, homelessness.

I cried.

I tried calling my dad again.  Cried some more.  Looked for some buckets.  Couldn’t find any. Called my dad again.  Threw towels all over the bathroom floor. Called my mom, my sister, my neighbor. Still no answers.  I cried some more.

According my phone records, I made over 30 calls.

Granted my whole family was just in the house next door, but I wasn’t wearing any pants.

So clearly, I was meant to deal with this alone.

I threw paper towels everywhere.  Sprayed scrubby bubbles like confetti .  Dried the water off of Mom’s circulars, my pill bottles, Christan’s project, Erin’s snack. And then I scrubbed like I haven’t scrubbed in forever.

Adrenaline, people.  It makes people do amazing things.

And that’s when my mom came home.

But at least I unclogged the toilet.
You can pee in there again.