Prank Wars

I'm most likely going to get myself into a heap of trouble for posting about this topic, but I really do appreciate a good prank.

I'm not talking about putting salt in someone's drink,
or even: let's tell her that boy she likes is waiting to meet her in the back parking lot after school
or even the: let's draw on her face with eyeliner when she's sleeping.

I'm talking about GOOD pranks. Ones that take time, energy, planning and finances to do. Pranks that are not harmful or hurtful or stupid - the ones that whether they happen to someone you know, or even to yourself, you can smirk or even laugh at the cleverness of the pranksters.

Take for the time in college when someone stole my toilets.
THAT is a clever prank.

Or the time when someone thoroughly wrapped my car in police tape.

Or even the time when all the lables on the cans in my cuboard were not just cut off, but carefully switched onto different cans. I got so frustrated one day making chili when I kept opening cans of peaches and pears that I actually went to the grocery store to tell them to mention to their suppliers that their labels were wrong. I found out later that soemone had broken into my kitchen and switched the labels. They felt great that I was so stupid. I felt... well... really stupid.

I'm talking about the time when my entire fifth grade class disappeared in the middle of the day.

Pranks like that take time, effort and planning. They are harmless and funny. (Come on - they took my toilet! Brilliant!)

Last night as I was driving the KCS Guatemala team back from the airport in Seattle I was talking with one of the chaperones and a twelfth grade leader and the topic of pranks came up, becuase I played one on a friend last week that was clever, simple and amusing. To everyone. It wasn't my best prank by far, but it was geared to the person it was played on and it hit home in a real way. I've jokingly been disowned as a friend and am, and I quote 'dead to him'. (P.S. JB, I'm specifically writing this post for you because you were whining that I haven't mentiond you on my blog lately. Here's your shout out)

Anyways JB (who I just realized now has the same initials of my boy the Biebster) LOVES his truck. When I say 'loves' I don't mean he really likes it, or is obessed with it, I mean he actually, physically, with his whole entire being, heart, mind, body and soul, LOVES his truck. We are not even allowed to talk about or mention his truck without him getting protective. We've been clearly warned, many times, that to even touch his truck would result in a big brown coiler placed strategically on our pillows. And that's a quote.

I never touched his truck.
But I did put a for sale sign on it. $500 OBO and his phone numbers.

Simple. Clever. Funny.

It was also funny when I heard that my friend played a similar prank on his brother. Only he advertised his brothers truck in the classifides and left specific instructions to call between certain hours - the hours when his brother was sleeping.

When it comes to pranks though, my all time, best prank ever occurred years ago after the excellently planned 'steal dorm 8's toilets (and all their furniture)' episode of the fall of 2002. You know when you prank someone (especially a Gerrits - and FYI they were warned before the prank about me), that retaliation is going to come. Those boys expected retaliation. They were diligent about locking doors and windows and being nice to us. Little did they know, that we were playing it cool. Waiting for the night to come (four months later in the dead of a winter night), when we would strike back.

And strike back hard we did.

We hoarded supplies for months and the night of the dastardly deed we stayed awake till 4am. There were charts, and floor plans, face masks, costumes and if I'm remembering things properly, I'm pretty sure that one member of our dorm was sleeping and we practice-pranked/rehearsed on our own dorm, including the break in.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of what was done in under 4 minutes. (And may I add that they were all sleeping in their beds. When they stole our toilets we were all home for Easter break).

Tipped buckets of water against their bedroom doors
Syrup on all doorhandles and railings
Windows frozen open, thin layer of water on all linoleum floors aka ice rink)
Jello powder mixed into the toilet bowls
And the best, most hilarious thing we ever did do: Filled the cutlery drawer with salt water and a live lobster.

In retrospect we may have gone a little overboard. And they whined like mama's boys for weeks afterwards - it really put a sour note to our friendship that they couldn't handle getting back what they gave out, but you know what? Suck it up princess.

Morals of the story:
a - if you are going to prank someone, make it fun and not harmful.
b - if you are going to prank someone, you will get pranked back.
c - well planned out pranks can be hilarious if played on the right person at the right time.
d - I dominate at prank wars, so don't even cross that line unless you can take it.