Mia Macguiver

My sister reminded me of some great bathroom humor that I simply must share. Well, "must" is a strong word, but I think it's a funny story so you are all going to hear it.

Back in early November, I went Christmas shopping with my mom and my sisters. I love this trip. We do it every year. And we shop like it's what we do for a living, and we do not quit until we have accomplished our goal of getting our Christmas gifts purchased in their entirety, or at least in their almost-doneness. We do break for dinner and cookies, and on Saturday evenings in the hotel room, we usually drink wine. See? Now you all wish you could come with us, don't you? Also included in the trip is usually at LEAST one occasion where we end up laughing until tears are streaming down our faces. This year, I had an incident that prompted one of the moments of riotous laughter.

We went to Cheddars for dinner, and I ordered a drink and then went to the bathroom to pee and wash my hands, cuz... well I had to pee and it's a good idea to wash your hands after that AND before eating after rummaging through piles of sweaters and toys at Toys R Us. I was the only patron in the restroom, and I went into a stall, locked the door (like you do), and did my tinkle business. I finished with that task, flushed, made sure my barn door was closed and then lifted the handle on the latch and... nothin. The door would not open.

The latch was broken and now I was locked in the stall. There was only about a foot of space between the bottom of the stall door/wall and the floor, so going under was not an option. I considered going over it, but decided I would probably injure myself, and that would be embarassing. I could yell for help, but who would hear me in a noisy restraunt? Plus, the mere thought of standing in the restroom stall, yelling, "Help!! I'm stuck in here!" made me giggle too much. So, I decided I would have to turn my attention to the lock and see if I could jimmy that thing open. It was your standard bathroom stall lock, with a little pin pushed into the door frame, with the secret to my freedom lying in the ability of the pin to be pulled back into the door itself. I had my purse (thank goodness), but it had been fairly purged of all superfluous items to lighten the load for a long day of shopping. Dang. I tried a pen, but it was too fat - wouldn't reach the pin. I had a moment of clever thought and took out my hoop earring, wiggling one end in the opening and carefully scootching the pin back into the door. Ta-dah! And nobody came in there that whole time.

I washed my hands and went back to my table and very calmly said, "Well, I just got locked in the bathroom stall and Macguivered my way out with my earring." At which they exclaimed, "What?!" and burst out laughing. Good times.