If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…

Sunday July 9th

This was always one of my favorite books to read to the kids when they were growing up. It sums up so many things in life…one action leading to another. This is how my story unfolds.

My accommodations are not the best in world, so to cheer myself up I decided to hire a painter to come in and give my new place a fresh coat of paint! One, because my place was all ‘blah’ white-white walls and white baseboards. And two, I needed to hide the tell-tale signs of the gecko tracks that were left over from the “Nigel saves the day” incident. I selected a color called “limestone” a lovely pale grey that would compliment my swell (NOT) tan tile floors and the 1970’s yellow bathroom tile! Yes, that’s right, my bathtub is surrounded in yellow tile that looks like it is straight from a segment of the Brady Bunch. It took the painters 2-days to paint the whole townhouse, top to bottom. Once it was finished it looked spectacular…but, I needed a new shower curtain.

The new shower curtain the housing office provided at move-in…just wasn’t quite right so I had to look for a new one. Luckily part of my new hire orientation included a shopping trip to Dhahran! Cash in hand, I was on a mission to find a yellow and grey shower curtain. Two stores into the trip I found what I was looking for- a pretty paisley print curtain in grey/yellow and white-an unbelievable find here in the Middle East considering the most popular color here is deep purple and pink! See below of what NOT to buy here!

I am so excited when I get home! I have a new shower curtain to install, I got a microwave and my golf cart is arriving from Dhahran in less than 1 hour. I run upstairs and proceed to install my shower curtain. At first I take my time slipping all the new plastic clips (that was ALL I could find!) in the holes of the shower curtain. After a couple of goes at this I decided it was taking too long so I decided to perform this action while standing on the side of the tub.  I proceed to put the curtain up while hooking it to the rod at the same time…and that is when it happened. I dropped a plastic clip in the toilet. UGH! I continue putting up the shower curtain and decide fish it out of the toilet after I am done. Only I didn’t fish it out-I forgot because I was to busy admiring how well the curtain fit into my new color scheme and how I was able to take ugly 70’s tile and make it look new again.

A few hours later I am off to pick up the golf cart. Getting ready for bed the clip is outta sight – outta mind. Next morning getting ready for work and uh-oh why isn’t the toilet flushing? OMG! I forgot about the clip! NO I say to myself! I have NO plunger, NO wire hanger and NO time to fish for a stupid shower curtain clip. Off to work I go, I will call maintenance after work.

I skip my pre-paid PIYO class because I need my one and only toilet and it usually takes maintenance hours to respond to a call…sure enough a 4:15 call turns into a 6:05 visit. Two guys arrive at my house, one young (early 20’s) one old (late 50s) carrying something in a plastic bag- they are not dressed in a maintenance uniforms so OF COURSE I let them into my house! No seriously, they were okay and were called to fix my toilet issue but neither of them speak a lick of English. They head upstairs and I show the younger man what I dropped into the toilet-he proceeds to ROLL his eyes, sighs loudly and says something to the older man in a language that was not English or Arabic (like I could understand that one either!). But seriously…did I just see you roll your eyes? Just so you know eye rolling is the universal sign for you are a total dumb ass!

He and the other man go back and forth for a few minutes until the older man pulls a plunger out of the plastic bag and proceeds to plunge away. GREAT I am thinking…all he’s going to do it push it further down the pipe. Did they not see what was dropped and flushed down the toilet? The guy actually gets it cleared, flushed it 3 times and says its fixed and leaves. Yay!!!! I am happy, I sign the work order and off they go. Of course by Monday morning…the toilet is clogged again.

It took another maintenance call, another visit and more plunging for the issue to become what I am certain is a temporary fix. If you give a mouse a cookie…he will want a glass of milk. One gecko, one paint job, one shower curtain and one little clip…