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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A not-so-hypothetical question

Imagine this:

Your daughter screams for the toilet, so your husband pulls into the nearest rest stop on the highway-- a dingy, brick cell, complete with graffiti and the usual public-toilet aromas. This place is worse, though, than the usual, and your daughter refuses to place her bottom on the toilet rim because the steel cistern and bowl are not up to her (high) standards.

She bucks her head and somehow in the process, dislodges your earring and you hear it clang into the bottom of the toilet. Underneath the water and God-knows what germs...not to mention urine.

The earring? Nothing of consequence in material terms. Not even diamonds - 100% genuine cubic zirconias. But they are nice, and I really like them, and don't have much jewellery to call my own.

So - my dilemma. To fish it out, or not to fish it out? Retrieve or flush it to it's early end?

What would you do?

See my comments to see what I did...

Comments on "A not-so-hypothetical question"

 

Blogger Miscellaneous-Mum said ... (6:12 pm) : 

I fished it out. I gritted my teeth and did it. And the bloody place didn't even have any soap, so I held my hand out of the window of the car until we got to a place with decent facilities.

*shudder*

 

Blogger jeanie said ... (8:28 pm) : 

oooh - I am afraid I would have undone the other earring and left it - but then, I have far more holes in my ears (blame high school) than I ever fill these days!

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10:04 pm) : 

I'd probably fish it out if I liked it enough. Then I would have flushed the toilet on my hand a few dozen times and held it out the window, like you, until soap was at hand.

*shudder*

 

Blogger D. Paul said ... (11:32 pm) : 

You are a braver soul than I, by far, Misc-Mum. Public toilets give me the willies.

*shudder shudder*

 

Blogger Quiskaeya said ... (1:53 am) : 

LOL..You brave soul!

 

Blogger Jean-Luc Picard said ... (5:09 am) : 

I would have wrapped my hand in tissue paper the lessen the feeling, then put my hand in.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (8:31 am) : 

ah...gloveless? 'tis courage indeed.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (8:39 am) : 

Being of a more duplicitous nature, I would have told my other half that it was a diamond earring and that perhaps he'd like to retrieve it or fill out the insurance forms.
Cheers

 

Blogger Jen at Semantically driven said ... (9:49 am) : 

You must have really liked that earring. I don't know if I could have done it without soap or gloves.

 

Blogger Tracey said ... (11:59 am) : 

Well, isn't human urine supposed to be sterile? I fished $2 out of our home loo the other day... but I took the risk of flushing lightly first, so that the paper was flushed, and the wee was diluted enough. At least I could wash my hands!

Just adding that as another reason why I'm glad I don't have pierced ears!!! LOL

 

Blogger Miscellaneous-Mum said ... (1:28 pm) : 

Thanks all for your comments, but I just had to add - mcewan! I like your style..... :) ;)

 

Blogger Julie Pippert said ... (2:24 pm) : 

Oh, I'd've done the same as you. Truly. But then again, I lost my skeeves sometime back during the fourth round of infertility treatment trying to get pregnant, or it might have been the first labor...hard to recall now.

 

Blogger shishyboo said ... (9:16 pm) : 

fish it out and wash, or rinse and then get some of that handy antibac gel that doesn't require washing off.

we all handle money and that's the grubbiest thing I can think of. We have no idea where it's been before us! And as Tracey has mentioned it just may have been in the loo!

 

Blogger Gill said ... (10:54 pm) : 

Oh my goodness - that is a tough call! LOL If I loved them A LOT I would probably have done exactly what you did EEEUEW!

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10:55 am) : 

I've fished my mobile phone out of the toilet at the pub a couple of times... It was that or not be able to keep in contact with my homies.

 

Blogger Miscellaneous-Mum said ... (11:51 am) : 

shishyboo (& T) - yes, I've heard money is just about the dirtiest thing you can ever handle, and yet most of us don't seem to have a problem with it!

Jebus - you know what? I believe you....... ;) :)

 

Blogger Lib1 said ... (11:18 pm) : 

I saw a very funny Italian film in which a woman was left behind in a bus tour after she spent quite a while coping with the same quandry in a public loo. Abandoned by her family who took quite a while to realize that she was missing, she ended up in Venice with a much happier life. I first saw it in Italy without subtitles, much of it was difficult for me to follow, but it was easy to relate to her fishing her jewellery out of the toilet.

 

Blogger Di said ... (10:07 pm) : 

Definitely reach in...and I didn't read your comment yet. You are a Mom...your life is defined by the grossness you have to deal with...from moments after conception...tee hee!!! That's why we have antibiotic soap!!!

 

Blogger Di said ... (10:10 pm) : 

And next word to the wise....carry a small bottle of Purel in your purse. Not that I do...but I do carry one in my golf purse!

Oh...and I just started carrying a first aid kit in my car...that would have had some kind of sterilizing thing that would have made you feel better.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10:31 am) : 

lol....you are such a good Mum.

Like you, I don't have an abundence of pretty jewels so I would feel the loss of an ear ring.
However, I've also seen the contents of public toilets - urrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkk.

I think I'd leave the ear ring but whinge sufficiently to ensure that this father's day (only 2 days away in Australia) I'D get a nice new set of ear rings.

Here, with pleasure and leaving with a smile, from the Carnival of Australia.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (4:54 am) : 

I would definitely have left it in there! I despise dirty bathrooms!

 

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