A Stain to Remember

I have a habit of staining things.

For whatever reason, I am just really good at it.

Sometimes we attribute this to my dad because he stains everything just like I do.  But regardless, all the stains over the years have definitely made my mom an expert at getting them out.

However, now that I’m abroad, I no longer live with an expert stain-remover nor do I have the proper supplies to tackle a stain on my own.  At the same time, I figured if the problem arose I’d figure it out one way or another.

Then this happened:

The stain

I think it’s safe to say this the worst stain I’ve ever had to clean out.  Funny thing is, this was not my own doing for once.  

Earlier this week, the study abroad group from Loyola got together for dinner with our advisor here amidst all the chaos.  It was a Middle Eastern restaurant called Ima and the group dinner featured a variety of different plates, one being a chicken curry dish.  And what is all over my shirt, is that curry. 

Towards the end of the meal, we were having all different conversations across the table.  At this point, in my fancy swivel chair they provided, I was facing to the right, while my friend Lara, was on my left.  Well, Lara was fiddling with the tongs provided to serve the chicken to everyone and earlier in the night we realized to extend the tongs to their full use, the metal stopper had to be moved out of the way.  For whatever reason, when Lara went to pick up the tongs, the metal stopper flung up out of the way and the tongs flicked open.

Of course since the tongs were sitting in the dish, they were covered in curry and since I was sitting in front of the dish, the tongs subsequently covered me in the very same curry.  It all happened so fast it took a second for everyone to realize and then we all just exploded into laughter.

Knowing time was of the essencestill trying to control our laughter, Lara and I ran into the bathroom to put the shirt under cold water and do what we could in the moment to contain the stain.  

On a side note, interesting fact about the bathroom, they used cheese graters as lights! 

After admiring the lights, we did our best to manage the stain.  We knew there was not much we could do at the restaurant, but in that moment I was actually happy Lara accidentally splattered curry all over me because it gave me this idea for my blog.  She profusely apologized, but most of us could not get over how funny it was that this happened.  Erin was also in the bathroom and when she came out, Lara captured this picture and it perfectly sums up the whole ordeal.

Erin laughing at the stain

In the end, this was probably the most fitting thing that could happen to me.  I stain my shirts all the time and it was only a matter of time before I stained this one too.  I know Lara felt bad but knowing this was bound to happen at some point I actually want to thank her.  At least I know have an interesting story to tell because of it.  And who knows, maybe if I can’t get the stain out, I’ll just tie-dye the rest to match.

Lara posing with her masterpiece