Stalking and a Pencil Bouquet

A friend had jokingly sent me an email entitled "Stalking".

After leaving preschool one day I stopped at a light that was turning from yellow to red and all of a sudden someone started beeping their horn behind me.

At me?  For not running a red light?

I could feel the annoyance flaring inside of me and tried to keep myself from muttering any unpleasantries since the girls were in the car.

I hate aggressive drivers.

I looked in my rearview mirror trying to identify the culprit.  Did the person behind me look like a horn blowing, impatient, rude driver?

Actually she looked kind of familiar.  Then she started to wave and I noticed her laughing.  It was my friend who had also just picked up her daughter from preschool.  She was just trying to get my attention.

Then I started laughing.

Emmy asked what was so funny.  "Miss Cathy (names have been changed to protect the guilty) is being silly", I replied.  Em started making beeping noises with Madison soon joining in.

Since then Em always asks if we are going to see Miss Cathy when we go to preschool even now weeks later.  Something about her silliness endeared herself to my daughter even though she has known her for awhile.

Later that day I got the stalking email from her which made me laugh.  It asked if I enjoyed being stalked at the light.  She thought it would be fun to fool with me. It had given me a laugh after my initial surprise.  She went on to say how she hoped my driving wasn't disrupted to much and how amusing it was on her part (and how desperate she was for attention).

We went back and forth with that email and I had mentioned a conversation I had had earlier that morning with the preschool director about kindergarten and which preschool program to enroll Em in for next year.  Miss Cathy gave me some good advice and then at the bottom of the email joked how she usually charges $150 dollars for her invaluable advice.

I asked her if she would accept the $150 in chicken corn noodle soup.  She had recently requested my chicken corn noodle recipe.

She replied that she would take it in pencils.

Then the wheels started turning.

At the dollar store you can buy 12 pencils for $1.  That means I would owe her 1800 pencils.  That's a lot of pencils.

But 150 pencils...that I could do.

For Miss Cathy's birthday recently I made her a pencil bouquet of 150 pencils wrapped in a gold ribbon.

I couldn't stop laughing in the Dollar Store as I bought the pencils.  Then I couldn't stop chuckling as I tried to grasp that many pencils as I unskillfully maneuvered a rubber band around them. I smiled every time I imagined her face when she opened her "present".

I of course also got her a chocolate cupcake to go with her "bouquet" since chocolate goes with everything.

I couldn't even keep a straight face as I handed her the gift.  I had everything in a little gift bag with tissue paper covering the bouquet.  She promised to let me know how she liked it.

After a few hours I didn't hear anything and then I started to worry.  I kept checking my email on the computer and even on my cell phone when I ran out to run errands.  Had I offended her?  I love practical jokes but had I gone to far?  Even though most of the moms I know don't celebrate each others birthdays-only the kids'- since otherwise we would all be in the poor house, I wondered if I should have gotten her something a little more serious even if it was something small? 

Then, I noticed the light blinking on our answering machine.  She had called while I was out and my husband hadn't even noticed.

She loved it.  She thought is was hilarious.  My first thought was of relief and then I laughed.  She later sent me an email joking that she meant gold bricks. I responded that we might have some fool's gold lying around somewhere. 

A little laughter can go a long way.  I still chuckle when I think about it.

That is what is keeping me laughing this morning since we are stuck inside with lots of ice outside and school cancelled.

What is a practical joke you once pulled that still makes you smile when you think about it?