Friday, October 30, 2009

A Halloween Trick That Ripples To This Day

My best assistant ever was a woman named Laura Brown. Laura came to work with me at my last company and she was a fun loving, uber excitable young lady with a tough shell but sassy undercoat. A fiery red head and a temper to match and boy did I get to see that temper firsthand one fateful Halloween.

I am a prankster always have been and likely always will be. Well one Halloween years ago I decided to pull a little trick on Ms. Laura and wait and watch for the treat to come! Laura had recently joined my company and was still in that "need to impress Steve stage" when I told her that it was company tradition that we all dress up for Halloween. I planted the seed in early September and kept prompting her with little comments here and there about the challenge of coming up with the best costume.

She took the bait.

A few days before Halloween she began to brag about how she would easily win the company's best Halloween costume contest. In fact she went as far as to downright smack talk me and a few of the employees about her intended domination of the contest. Having let my entire staff in on my little trick we all did our best to keep from cracking up whenever she brought the subject up. We all had great fun with it and couldn't wait to see what Laura decided to wear as her costume.

The morning of Halloween we all arrived extra early and gathered in my office which had a bank of windows facing the parking lot. I had breakfast tacos and coffee there for my staff and we all eagerly watched the parking lot for Laura's arrival. We were all like a bunch of little school kids giggling with excitement knowing full well how this trick was about go over.

We saw her car pull into the parking lot and we all started jumping up and down. What's she wearing? No one could tell. People were working themselves up into a pretty good frenzy anticipating her getting out of her car. She parked and just sat there for the longest time. We started to panic thinking she could somehow see all of us through the mirrored glass. What was she doing?

Finally after what seemed like five minutes, Laura emerged from her car floppy hair and all. She had taken the contest really, really serious and had gone all out to be one of the best looking clowns I had ever seen. As we watched her walk towards the building my employees were howling! For a moment I felt a pang of guilt - she had clearly intended to win that contest hands down.

We decided to remain in my office so the front of our offices would be empty and Laura would come looking for us. Let me tell you when she walked in to my office she looked like the happiest clown in the world. That all changed when she realized she was the only one wearing a costume!

Since this is a family BLOG I can't exactly tell you what she said but that clown taught us all a few new cuss words which I hate to say it but it is true, just absolutely made the trick for us all. After she calmed down and we all had a good laugh about it, Laura included, we told her she won the contest hands down and I think we awarded her a breakfast taco as first prize.

Some might consider that a mean trick. Laura wasn't exactly thrilled about it either a least not at first. But as the day wore on she came to love the extra attention everyone at the company and in the building gave her. Years later I can still call her and ask her if she's dressed up as a clown and that connection point and all the fun attached to it will bring a smile to both of our faces. That trick has a treat that Ripples to this day tastes just as sweet (I smiled the whole time writing this this morning!). No doubt it is one of my best Halloween memories and clearly one of the best tricks I've pulled off to this day.

Happy Halloween Ms. Laura and I just have to ask....are you going as a clown today?

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Ripple On!!!

5 comments:

Kimberly Erler said...

I counted at least 3 HR violations there... LOL

Happy Halloween!

Anonymous said...

What a riot. Steve you would be a fun boss! Crazy but fun!

Ripple Your Bad Self!

Tina

Steve Harper said...

Kimberly....shhhh! Is there a statue of limitations on such things? I don't need you putting ideas in Laura's head! :)

Tina...thanks!

Laura B. said...

OMG! This is as funny today as it was then!! I will never forget that or...The time you "stole" my new car from the parking lot! LOL!!!

By the way...You guys taught me that bad word! :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

thomsinger said...

Ok, that is an above average FUNNY one. This story made me smile!!!