Just Laugh

Well- it couldn’t be a week in France without something going kirplunk and haywire for me. So I am happy to report that this week’s mishap is over and done with before the first day of the week. Lucky me. After the whole crazy electric bill incident I gave myself a pep talk that these little moments are what making living here interesting, quirky, memorable and most importantly a good blog. So rather than stress out or start crying on the floor- I told myself I just have to laugh it off. So let the laughter begin to roll…

Last night I decided would be a nice calm evening. Do a bit of Pilates, maybe a small glass of red wine, do a facial, paint my nails, and a pedicure. All those nice calming and relaxing girly things we gals enjoy. I also decided that I could multitask this, along with my need to do laundry. So I threw on my sweats, pulled my hair up, did my Pilates, and started a load of laundry.

After feeling relaxed from working out, I decided I would watch an episode of “Friends” while I painted my toes- but first I wanted to put on my face mask. As I walked down the hall and stepped into my room my carpet made a “squish squish” sounds while my feet were suddenly drenched in water. I immediately started to laugh and then looked down to find my very own homemade pond. This must have been what Noah felt like. However, I didn’t have time to assemble a boat and pair off a bunch of animals. My mission was to find towels and find them quick.

While literally standing in 2 inches of water that covered from my bathroom to my bed room door (probably about 10 square feet) I quickly grabbed the closest towel as a method to mop up the heinous mess I stood in. All I could do was laugh. I found it hilarious. I mean seriously how do you flood yourself out of your apartment while doing laundry?

I’ll tell you how… My washer requires that you feed a hose from your machine to a sink to assist in the draining. I always leave my hose resting in the sink, to avoid a situation like this. Well on Saturday, I had company coming and I thought, “Oh I should take the hose out, so my sink doesn’t look mess.” Well that thought and gesture, created a much larger mess 3 days later when I forgot to put the hose back in the sink. Can we say Oops.

So while I am in about 40 minutes of cleaning up this flood my doorbell rings. My doorbell NEVER rings. No one knows me or where I live, why would they ring my doorbell? Hesitantly I open the door. I am hesitant 1st because I have a flood in my apartment, 2nd because I don’t speak French, and 3rd and most importantly I look like a hot mess and completely disfrazzled, when this could be my first opportunity to make a friend in my building. I have my priorities.

I answer the door to a girl about my age. She lives beneath me and Ut-oh there is water leaking into her apartment. But! But! But, Not only is it leaking into her apartment, water has OVERFLOWED all into my hallway! How the heck did this happen? I look out and see two giant puddles of water where my walls connect with the outside hall way. At first I was confused thinking, “how did the water get out there when it’s not in front of my front door?” Duh it went through the walls- it has powers I lack. And secondly I momentarily felt relief thinking that I wasn’t the cause and that my whole floor was being flooded. Nope. Definitely just me.

After two hours of cleaning up a mess- and not relaxing one bit- I was left with a bunch of soaking wet towels, what I call “towel burns” on my hands, and exhausted arms from ringing out all the wet towels. I cleaned up my floors, cleaned up the hallway, and ensured the girl downstairs was not getting rained on any longer.

While cleaning up the crazy abundance of water I could still hear “Friends” playing in the background. At the start of each episode while playing the theme song, I couldn’t help thinking about the lyrics and how true they were at that very moment. “So no one told you life was gonna be this way [clap clap clap clap]” But rather than four claps it would be a bout of laughter coming from me. If anyone had told me I would be living alone in France flooding my apartment- I would have laughed at them and said, "yah right!!!" Guess the joke’s on me today. But that’s okay because I am laughing through it all. I know it will all be okay and that in spite of these mishap’s I am really overflowing (literally) with blessings.