The title of this post sounds like a fart joke waiting to happen. As much as I love a good fart joke (and I do – I live in a “most farts are funny” house), that is not the story I want to tell today.
The first stinky story began on Wednesday night when I picked Flora up from daycare. Sean normally picks her up on his drive home from work, but he had to work late so it was on me to go get her. When I pick up Flora, I usually go by bus because we only have one vehicle and Sean and I work in opposite ends of town. Flora gets to have an adventure on a not-too-busy bus (a 5-10 minute ride) and we have walk or (if it’s a planned pickup) stroller ride home. Takes a little longer, but not a big deal since we’re coming home for the evening, not starting the day.
Pickup went as normal. I had a nice chat with my childcare provider and Flora and I headed off to the bus stop. She hadn’t finished one of her sippy cups of milk so I put it in my purse. We had a uneventful bus ride (Flora talked all the way home about the bus) and a meandering walk home, as toddlers like to do.
About halfway through our trip, I thought my leg was getting wet. Stink lines weren’t waving around Flora so I opted not to worry about it. Once we got into the house, I discovered that it wasn’t an off-kilter diaper that got me wet. It was the sippy cup in my purse. It had leaked and dripped down to the bottom corner and was hitting my leg. I quickly emptied my purse and gave the lining a quick rinse and left it dripping in the kitchen sink. Later that evening, I took my purse upstairs and sprayed the lining with vinegar and sprinkled baking soda on it and left it out to dry overnight. I worried that the milk had gotten in between the lining and the purse itself which would be difficult to clean and would cause my purse to get funky in a non-fashionable way.
The next morning I checked and the purse seemed dry and funk-free enough to try wearing it again. I put my stuff back in it and treated everything as normal.
Fast forward to Friday morning.
All three of us get into the car to start the day (Sean drops me off near the subway). Before we get going, I smell a stink.
“Did Flora soil herself?” I ask Sean.
“I don’t know. Flora did you poop?” said Sean.
“No Daddy”, replied Flora. I wasn’t so sure I trusted her answer as she sometimes fudges the truth when she fudges her Huggies.
Again, I opted not to worry about it and we carried on with our day.
Once I was at work, Sean called me to tell me that he checked the car and couldn’t figure out the source of the stink. He even checked the engine thinking an animal had shit in it. He had also wondered in the car if someone had put poop in our gas tank. (That was a little too WTF for me but I suppose stranger things have happened.)
A little later, Sean and I have the following email exchange:
From: Sean
Sent: October 22, 2010 10:02 AM
To: Melissa
Subject: Mystery SolvedI stepped in Dog shit and it was copious.. Tried to get most of it off in the bathroom..fuckin dog
From: Melissa
Sent: October 22, 2010 10:06 AM
To: Sean
Subject: RE: Mystery SolvedI’m sorry, but I did laugh at this email. Hope you got it off. Did it hit your pants?
Much more sensible than someone putting poop in our gas tank. 😛
Now we know why we need to pick it up right away. (ed. note: the night before, Sean had taken the dog out, but hadn’t cleaned up the mess, saying he’d catch it tomorrow. He certainly did!)
From: Sean
Sent: October 22, 2010 10:07 AM
To: Melissa
Subject: RE: Mystery SolvedI still smell the poop..I might have to buy new shoes at lunch
From: Melissa
Sent: October 22, 2010 10:09 AM
To: Sean
Subject: RE: Mystery SolvedYou’ll probably keep smelling it long after the shoes are gone. Does anyone else notice it?
From: Sean
Sent: October 22, 2010 10:10 AM
To: Melissa
Subject: RE: Mystery SolvedI am not sure..Thinking about it I will now have to clean the brake and gas pedals and possibly replace the floor mat in the car
From: Melissa
Sent: Fri 22/10/2010 10:13 AM
To: Sean
Subject: RE: Mystery SolvedYou’ll want to wear the old shoes when driving home if the pedals are poopy. Then you don’t soil the new shoes.
I ended up with a severe case of the giggles as the emails went back and forth. I was relieved to have the mystery solved though.
However, due to all the talk about it, I started noticing more stink myself. I worried that the poop had somehow jumped from Sean’s shoes to mine and I checked my soles for it. Nothing there. I chalked it up to psychosomatic phantom smells and left it alone.
Come lunch time, I discovered that there were no phantom smells. That stink was real.
I had opened my drawer to get my purse so I could go and get my lunch. The stink that came out of there was wild. Turns out the milk from Wednesday had stuck and around and funked up my purse just as I had feared. So I had probably brought my own stink into the car as well. I couldn’t blame it all on Sean (or the dog for that matter).
My coworkers got a big laugh when I told them the short version of this story. They tell me that they hadn’t noticed the stink so either they’re too nice or my desk drawer had contained it perfectly to my cubicle.
I’ve been purse hunting ever since. This was one time I did not want to go on a purse bender because I actually really liked this purse (when it’s funk-free) and I wanted to be sure I’d find something similar in style (and price). I must be getting low on patience because I decided to try out a cute little bag I saw on Etsy. Buying online makes me nervous because you can’t feel it out to make sure it’s the one for you. I’m choosing to be optimistic.
I’m also choosing to store Flora sippy cups in her bag from now on.
Sean chose to pick up new shoes, which he really needed anyway.
Nothing like a little stink to keep things moving forward.
