Hide, Seek, and Panic

A few weeks ago, Carolyn was in the bathroom. When I heard her open the bathroom door, I went to see if she needed help choosing clothes.

But she wasn't in her room.

"Carolyn?" I called.

I glanced into her bathroom on my way past to check the living room, but didn't see her in there.

There was no answer to calling her name repeatedly as I looked in the three other rooms in our house.

Heart beating faster, I went out on the porch, wondering if she'd decided to go for a walk by herself, which is not okay.

Nope.

Called her name again.

No answer.

Heart racing, I ran back to her room and looked in her closet and on the far side of her shelves.

I couldn't see her anywhere.

"Carolyn?"

I almost passed her bathroom again as I wondered how long I should wait to call the police. Then I decided to go inside the bathroom, just to check, and look who I found standing behind the curtain?

She was delighted that I finished the Hide and Seek game that she hadn't bothered telling me that we were playing.

It's an adventure a day around here! I love this baby sister of mine.

 

An unexpected shower

I don't know about those automatic bathroom fixtures. You know, the ones where you just wave your hands, or your backside, depending on which commodity you're using, and it automatically does what it's supposed to? Flushing, dispensing water, soap, towels, or hot air are things I'd really rather do myself. I mean, I've stood in a bathroom stall before, waiting for things to disappear before I unlocked the door. And waiting. And waiting. Until, finally, FLOOSH! There it goes, and I can leave at last.
One time, I went into a restroom that had an automatic flusher, an automatic faucet, and an automatic soap dispenser, so naturally when I needed a towel, I just waved my hands over the magic sensor... but where was it? I felt like a mime as I ran my hands around the front, sides, and bottom of the towel dispenser without actually touching it.
Then I saw the lever.
Oh, I was supposed to push the lever MANUALLY to dispense a towel. I'm sure there was a hidden camera in there somewhere.
This Christmas, we went to Temple Square. There was a line in the ladies' bathroom, so when I got done with the automatic flush toilet that was reluctant to flush, I wondered if any of the waiting ladies were desperate. I quickly pushed a button on the toilet that I thought might flush it, but it turned out to be the sensor. So, putting modesty aside, I pushed out of the door, shrugged, and said, "It's supposed to flush automatically, but it's not doing its job."
Then I hurried to the sink and stuck my hands beneath the faucet. No water came out. In a hurry to get away before the lady who'd gone into my un-flushed stall came out, I moved my hands up and down, touching the faucet on each upsweep. Well, that's when the water came gushing out, spraying out from the pressure of my hands like a hose all over the mirror and the lady standing at the sink next to me.
"Oops!" I cried. "I'm so sorry!"
The last thing I heard as I fled was laughter, followed by the blessed words, "That's okay."

MyNewOffice

Okay, I just can't believe it. Not a single person guessed that my new office is in the refrigerator! It's not so far-fetched. Some fridge's are nearly as big as my new office digs.
It was interesting to discover that a lot of guesses were places I have either used or thought of using. The tree house was a good idea (mosquitoes kept me away), the dining room, kitchen, closet (lovely mental picture there; quiet, smells good, and not a high traffic area), and the laundry room, where I could write in a thumpa-thumpa rhythm to the washing machine. But most of the guesses were for...can you believe it? The bathroom! Where in the bathroom could I sit myself down to write? Did you ever consider that? Uh, never mind. The bathroom, of all places. You guys know me too well. You're right.
How did this happen? It's my fault, really. When we discovered that our upstairs shower was leaking, Bob tried some fixes that didn't work. So I got antsy one day and hammered out the tiles in the floor. Turns out the installer, bless his pointed little ears, had put linoleum down as an anti-leak lining. Take my word for it... it doesn't work. I had terrible anxiety over getting the thing fixed, until I gradually realized that no one cared about it except me.
I'd still like to fix the shower, but overall remodeling needs to be planned first, and since Michael recently made a haul on our neighbor's after-yard sale freebies, I needed to move out of his room. the shower provides a nice, cozy corner, and sitting in there with my laptop removes some of my anxiety to get it fixed RIGHT NOW!
I decided to draw for the bathroom-guesser-winner (if anyone would have been more specific and guessed, "shower," they would have won, hands-down.) The name drawn out by my impartial Michael-Man (if he were partial, he would have drawn his big brother's or sister-in-law's name) is... Gloria VanHorn! (Applause all around. Hey, stop booing, you sore losers!)
The rest of you can run right out and buy a copy of "Water Keep" as soon as it comes out this fall.
Keep your pen clean.