My day today.... wow.

Today at lunch half of our company had the luxury of being taken to Bonefish, on the company's dime. Lunch was delicious. The other half of the crew will go on Monday. Needless to say, after the lunch outing, many of us had eaten and drank enough to keep the toilets busy for the rest of the afternoon. On my way home from the restaurant, I discovered my intense need to use the facilities and go number one. I make my way quickly to the bathroom after we arrive back at the office... quickly do the normal routines of a girl bathroom activity, but see right before I sit that the toilet water looks very high. Finding my need for release greater than my curiosity, I sat anyway and peed. Once it was time to flush, I realized why the water was a bit higher... the toilet did not flush in full rather it did a half way kind of flush only taking half of the toilet paper with it. I grab the plunger, gave it a couple hard plunges, but it only did a half way job there after... so I took the lid off, piddled with that, plunged a bit more, and felt the toilet had gotten to a sufficient point - no more toilet paper in the bowl, new water in there and all, even though it didn't do it's good full form flushing routine. So I left the bathroom after putting the lid back on the toilet, washing my hands... and headed back to my desk.

Before I had answered my second email, my coworker Traci arrived at my cubicle. "Heather, did you just use the toilet? Did you have to plunge?"

"Yes? Is everything okay?" I responded.

"Uhhh, no. I peed and left a tampon in there, and when I went to flush, it started to rise. I plunged and plunged but it's not doing right. Can you come help?"

So back to the bathroom we went, where we met another coworker walking out with a worried look on her face, "don't go in there something is no right".

We quickly let her know that we were aware of the problem and that's why we were there. She followed us back in.

Evaluating the scene, the toilet was filled about 7/8 of the way full... with toilet paper and tampon floating around like boats in choppy waters. I quickly took charge and grabbed the plunger. I plunged a couple times, stopped when I saw no change to the nature of the water level and asked my coworkers what they thought we should do. We evaluated the situation a bit more... and took the lid off the toilet. There we discussed the toilet flushing process and talked through how we usually flush the water out of the top of the toilet, which in turn ends up taking away the water in the bowl first and refilling with fresh water. I quickly announced that while I was bending over the toilet with my feet close by, I did not want to attempt to flush it again.

Traci caught my drift, and boldly stated, "Watch you feet", as she pushed the lever down.

Automatically the water rose with the quickness of a hurricane coming onto the ocean shore... water flowed abundantly over the toilet seat, pouring all over the bathroom floor with a splash...

"ahhhh!!!!" the three of us screamed, as we jumped back as far as we could.

As the water settled, I stepped into the waters, and went back to work. "What do I do?"

We realized at this point that we might need to ask a male for assistance. I attempted the slow, deep plunges a couple time, but saw my actions were in vain.

(Side note, as we're actively discussion and attempting to find the solution to this problem, a fellow male coworker found his way in the room outside of the bathroom... he hears all the commotion and can see one coworker standing in the door way. He stops and listens...)

"Who do we go get?" we asked each other.

While the girls discussed finding a male helper, I began attempting to catch the tampon in the plunger, in order to throw it away so the male helper would not have to see the product. This was a hilarious act in itself as I imagine I looked like someone trying to catch a large goldfish out of a tank with a plunger. Not happening!

Thankfully one of my coworkers discovered the male outside the doorway and asked, "What do we do?"

"Short quick plunges," we were instructed.

The girls yelled back to me, "Heather, short quick plunges!"

So I went at it... pushing the plunger down in short bursts, unsure as to the correct technique, but only following what I had been told.

"Faster! Faster!" Traci yelled. Fully unaware as to how the scene was unfolding.

I continued to quickly push down the plunger in those short burst as fast as possible, and began to get the giggles.

And soon, like magic, the water, toilet paper, tampon disappeared and only a toilet bowl remained... slowly water - at a normal height - began to rise, and we cheered with an accomplished celebration! yay!

Now on to correcting the water laden floor problem, Traci quickly grabs a mop and begins pushing the water forward. With this particular mop, all that did was slush the toilet water up to the wall, which gravity then pushed back down towards us. Thankfully our other coworker asked, "Uhh, Traci, where do you think that water is going?"

We laughed and realized that paper towels were going to be our only practical solution. We put down the towels and used the mop to collect them throughout the floor, wiping it clean. Wow... we made it. That was a bit of work, huh?



Needless to say, due to the loud nature of the event my coworkers and I experience, and because of the hysterical technique I was asked to use to find a solution to the clogged/overflowed toilet... news spread quickly throughout the office. We've laughed about it all afternoon, and everyone has commented as we shared out story. Funny stuff.

If you need any details on the way to help your toilet out in a circumstance like this... a coworker graciously shared this link with us after hearing our story: http://www.howtodothings.com/home-garden/how-to-plunge-a-toilet

Happy toileting!