Today was one of the better April Fools Days I've had in a while. As I sit here sorting the events of the day, I just can't seem to stop chuckling. The day started off early...earlier than usual for some reason. The office had a few people there early, but for the most part everybody was running behind schedule. This left plenty of time to take care of a few last minute pranks. One of the guys was there already and played the 'your zipper's down' prank. Simple enough you might think. He had to say it twice while my mind tried to work it's way back through the preparation events of the morning. I second guessed myself because of a recent wardrobe malfunction.
Two days prior I found myself getting back into my car at a breakfast restaurant. As I set my drink on the roof and reached into my pockets to find my keys I noticed a completely unbuckled belt dangling out from underneath a jacket and untucked shirt tails. I wrinkled my forehead thinking how could that be. Thinking back through the morning, it occurred to me I might have for got to finish getting put together. Yep, I changed my shirt twice and must have got distracted. I looked further and realized only one of the 2 clasps were fastened, and the zipper was all the way down. Wow, I was lucky to be wearing pants at all! Wait a minute, I just stood in line, stood in front of a cashier, walked back and forth to the soda fountain 3 times, and ate breakfast dressed like this. My belt was unbuckled and just dangling and I didn't even notice. Nobody I encountered had anything to say (to me) about it either.
This thought flashed through my head as he said for the second time, "Your zipper is down." I reached over and checked it and was promptly "April Fooled." He laughed on his way to the coffee pot. Ha, there's my first victim. We passed going opposite directions. I skipped right past my office and went straight to his. I opened IE, adjusted his volume so I could hear when he opened it, and changed his home page. This got me warmed up a bit. Next were the sticky notes for the mouses around the offices. Sticky notes went underneath the optical mice and the one old track ball mouse had its ball removed. Let the fun begin.
As people began arriving I had to be a little more covert. There was the scotch tape over the telephone receiver switch...didn't get much fun out of that one. Ah, but wait...I can get unsuspecting people from email. I drafted up a little note about people being silly sometimes and camouflage it hyperlinked style. It was simple prank, but it just kept getting increasingly funnier and funnier as it kept getting opened in our office. Part of the trick was to send it out to each individual separately. Everybody thought it was just them that got it. Every time somebody new read the email, everybody who had already read it erupted in laughter...which just became more and more contagious.
At some point during the day my zipper fooler finally opened his IE. He freaked out quite a bit. First I heard a yell, then I heard the music as he cussed a few choice sailor sayings as he attempted to get rid of it. He had got the sound turned down, and eventually got to the MSN homepage. I was on a conference call at the time but that didn't stop him from running out and interrupting me to have me come over to his computer to get it off. It wasn't much longer he opened the "Porn Freak" email too and let out another slew of cuss words that would make a sailor blush a little.
By far the most entertaining of all the day's pranks was the telephone message. A newer guy at the office has been spending a lot of time in the dating scene lately. He's probably dropped his name, number, title, position, and other measurements as well to many a local lady. He hadn't spent much time at his desk the entire day. Using Google, I dug up the nearest Morgue, Mortuary, Funeral Home...whatever I could find and took the number down. I wrote inconspicuously on a yellow sticky note the following message:
Call Back
Myra Maines
XXX-XXX-XXXX
I walked it over to his desk and stuck it on his sleeping monitor. An hour or so later I could hardly contain myself. People were opening noisy emails, shrieking in fear and cussing in surprise. The office was almost ready to peak. Newly Single finally made it back over to his desk, and in a very uneventful turn, called the number on the sticky note. Going through his head must have been the dozens and dozens of ladies he's given out his number too. He made the call so quietly and so discreetly, nobody knew until he was done. He started walking around the office, almost a little butt-hurt, but still in good humor. He kept asking around who could have left this anonymous note on his monitor and when nobody fessed up, he described over and over what happened when he called.
I'm not sure he even understood what happened as he had such a confused look on his face as the people he told busted out in hysterical laughter. He actually put a couple of people in tears. He relayed the story over and over...each time it got more and more difficult for me to contain myself. I had been laughing quietly all day long and this was just icing on the cake. His story was this: "I called this number and asked for Myra Maines, and the lady on the other end said it was a practical joke. I couldn't figure out what she was talking about, a practical joke? She said somebody was playing a practical joke and this was a mortuary. Who left this note on my screen?"
By the time he had told it a half-dozen times, I couldn't contain myself any longer. He also seemed like he finally got it. He was a little embarrassed, partly for not getting it, but then also for calling a funeral home unsuspectingly and asking for something that might have been a bit disrespectful...not to mention, the lady on the other end got the joke before he did. He was such a great sport, and he seemed to feel a little better when everybody else around the office said they had fallen victim to some harmless jokes I had been sharing with everybody.
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