humility

Being (for whatever reason) a rather self-effacing sort of person, I've been trying to become better at showing off, but it's hard. Despite my best attempts, life still conspires to keep me humble.

An example:
Last week (in Ecuador) I was faced, unexpectedly, with a stuffed toilet (not of my own stuffing, I might add.) (and so I did) (add it, I mean.)

I was in a rented apartment, and, with one eye on the rising water in the bowl, I looked around wildly for a plunger. Not finding one, I thought to myself, "what is there on hand that's about the right size, and could serve to get some vacuum pressure going in there?" And my brain immediately answered: "a 2-liter soda bottle!"

I ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and an empty Dasani bottle, chopped the top off it, and was back to the bathroom within seconds. I squeezed away at the bottle and was amazed to find that my plan worked perfectly! Almost better than a real plunger!

The excitement over, I went back to the couch to read. When Erin and Victoria walked in a few minutes later, I told them about my inspired emergency action; my amazing 2-liter hack!

They looked bored, and Victoria said "oh yeah, I read about someone doing that in some magazine a couple of months ago."

Oh well. I was disappointed, but soon consoled myself with the thought that at least I wasn't wasting my allotted 15-minutes of fame on a toilet....