After a fairly stressful and long day at work, there’s nothing quite so demoralizing than stepping on a sodden bathmat — the return of the leaky bathroom ceiling (making a third appearance!). Happy Friday the fucking 13th! I deployed a bucket under the drip and waited for S’villain to get home from work, but before he showed up, two more leaks materialized.

He called our landlord but got voicemail and left a message. Meanwhile, I pored over our lease to find the emergency number we could call in case of plumbing emergency — which we weren’t supposed to call until we’d either gotten our landlord’s blessing or 24 hours had elapsed.

Doug talked to one of the grad students who lives upstairs, who said that the toilet had been running constantly but he really didn’t think anything of it.

We ordered some food and watched some of the “America’s Next Top Model” I’d taped earlier in the week. Before the second Tyramail had arrived, however, the sound of water got loud enough that I paused the tape to check it out. A steady stream of coffee-colored water was pouring from the bathroom ceiling and the ceiling in the hallway outside; large, yellow water droplets fell from all along the bathroom lintel, and two more leaks had started drip-drip-dripping.

We figured our landlord wouldn’t want us to wait 24 hours while an aquifer formed between the first and second floor, so Doug called the emergency number and was told that they’d call back within an hour. Doug asked our upstairs neighbor if he’d mind letting Doug turn off the water valve on his toilet. He didn’t, and was amazed to discover that golly, his whole bathroom was now flooded, too!

The water flow tapered off by the time we went to bed. Not a peep from the plumber until this morning, but he was able to right the situation with our upstairs neighbors with a new ballcock. (After the plumber had left, Doug said, “I am so glad I don’t have a job where I have to regularly say ‘ballcock’ with a straight face.”) We still haven’t heard from our landlord, but I hope he sends his handyman out to fix the warped and soggy ceiling.