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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, the longest distance I’ve ever ridden a bike is 32 miles, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’ll tell how a prank war helped make the most out of a challenging situation.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
About nine years ago I was working for a bookstore chain and I was part of a team that would sometimes travel to help set up new store locations. The time away from my family varied based on how far the location was from home. If I had to fly to get to the new store then I’d stay away longer. If it was within a few hours of driving, then I’d usually come home for a day on the weekend.
It was hard being away from my family for a week or more at a time, but the people I worked with to set up the new stores were a lot of fun to be around. There was a lot of energy to feed off of as everyone was excited to be opening up a new location in a new city. The new employees at the store were excited to be part of a new venture in their community, and those of us that were a part of the setup crew were excited to help the new team learn the ropes.
There was one particular stretch of time though that was challenging. It started when we set up a new store in Denton, TX. Denton was close, only about 2.5 hours away from home. The setup took a month, and that included staying a week or so after the store opened so that we could be there to assist the new employees as customers started arriving. We would travel down to Denton on Sunday and come home either Friday night or Saturday afternoon. This gave us a day to spend with our families before we headed back to Denton.
Now, not all of the setup crew was from Oklahoma City. The company pulled in top employees from all over the company to come help set up new stores. Two of us from the Oklahoma City market were part of the team so we would ride down together and room together once we arrived. My traveling partner for that four week stretch was a good friend of mine named Ben.
Ben and I had a lot in common and being around him really made the drive time pass more quickly. We were both competitive, so when one of us decided to pull a simple prank on the other, it was on like Donkey Kong!
It started one night when I wasn’t looking, he put ice in my bed. A few minutes later I grabbed a book and got in bed to read. I soon felt something odd on my butt, but thought that my shorts had bunched when I sat down. I tried shifting around, but the feeling didn’t go away. When I finally reached down to fix my shorts, I realized what he’d done. Ben bursted out in laughter and said that he wondered when I was going to notice. The next morning when he was in the shower, I took a fist full of napkins and soaked them. I put them in the toe of one of his shoes. When he selected another pair of shoes to wear that day, I tried to tell him that the other shoes would look better. He saw right through me and immediately checked to see what I’d done to the other shoes. Ben 1, Darrell 0.
One thing that Ben and I did not have in common was an interest in fitness. Most nights when we’d get back to the hotel, Ben would go to fitness center to work out. When he returned to the room, he would go into the bathroom to freshen up. The night after the ice prank he went down to the fitness center. While he was gone, I took the ice bucket and put quite a bit of water in it, and put it on the bathroom door so that it would fall on him when he went to freshen up. Unfortunately for me, that night when he returned to the room he nudged the bathroom door so he could throw his water bottle away, and then he laid down on his bed to cool off. When he nudged the door, the bucket fell and he was no where near the drop zone. The score is still Ben 1, Darrell 0.
By trying to get him with the ice bucket I’ve made it clear that I have revenge on my mind. At this point Ben decides that he will also take an offensive strategy. As I got ready for work the next day I was feverishly trying to figure out what to do. As I stood over the sink brushing my teeth I saw the bottle of hotel shampoo sitting on the counter. It was yellow, but I hoped that it would dry clear. I took some shampoo and poured it on the bristles of Ben’s toothbrush. Unfortunately, it did not dry clear. Ben easily saw the shampoo and rinsed off his toothbrush before use. The score is still Ben 1, Darrell 0.
The next prank started one night when we stopped at Taco Bell for dinner. The next morning as I prepared to brush my teeth and squeezed out the toothpaste, it looked odd. Ben had squeezed a package of Taco Bell fire sauce into my toothpaste tube. I felt good that I had foiled his prank, but the score was still Ben 1, Darrell 0.
We had an unwritten rule that we wouldn’t do anything that was destructive the hotel or the other person’s property. We also couldn’t do anything while we were on the job. However, that didn’t stop us from talking about the prank war at the store and trying to get different employees on our side to feed us ideas. Ben got his next move from one of those private conversations.
One night as I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed, Ben stripped off the sheets and blankets from my bed and rearranged the sheets. He short sheeted my bed. I still don’t know how he was able to do it so quickly and quietly, but he did. When I got into bed that night, I couldn’t get my legs down to the foot of the bed. I pulled the sheets to get some slack and it didn’t work. I kicked and flailed but that didn’t work either. I yelled out, “Stupid housekeeping! Can’t you make a bed?!” And then it hit me…Ben had struck again. I peer over at him and he has the grin of a cheshire cat. He erupted into laughter and said that his prank had worked even better than he hoped. Ben 2, Darrell 0.
It was right about this time that the store was ready to hand over to the new team and for us to head back home. A few weeks later another store was ready to set up. This time it was located in Garland, TX. As Ben and I drove down for the first day of work, it didn’t take long for him to bring up the prank war. He asked me if I had any plans of continuing it. I told him that I was planning on not only continuing the prank war, but I was going to win. He laughed.
Ben struck first. The process of setting up the store is tiring for many reasons. The hours are long, and the first couple of weeks are spent climbing ladders, unloading trucks, unpacking storage tubs, and lifting a lot of heavy items. We spent most evenings trying to loosen up our muscles by spending some time in the hot tub, but this time Ben also brought along a tube of Icy Hot. The first morning after I came out of the bathroom, Ben asked me if I was feeling okay. He has an ornery look in his eye. To be honest, my armpits were burning but I was not going to give him the pleasure of knowing that he’d gotten me again. I told him that I felt fine. He laughed and confessed that he’d put Icy Hot on my deodorant. I played it off and told him that it must not have worked. In fact, I know that Ben is listening to this right now, and this is the first time he is realizing that at this point it was Ben 3, Darrell 0.
This was really not cool. I had a bit of a reputation for being a prankster, and Ben is making me out to be an amateur. Throughout the day I thought about various options, and finally had a moment of brilliance. The next morning when Ben was in the shower, I went through his luggage and found the Icy Hot. He didn’t notice. I then took my shower and we went off to work. A few times throughout the day I mentioned the hot tub. My muscles were feeling the strain of a hard day’s work and the hot tub was going to feel great! He agreed.
When we returned to the hotel and I mentioned the hot tub, he’d had a change of heart. He now was so tired he just wanted to chill in the room. I kept after him though, and he eventually agreed to go down to the hot tub. I grabbed my swimming trunks from the bathroom so I could change in the bed area while he changed in the bathroom.
When he came out of the bathroom a couple of minutes later he was walking a bit uncomfortably and had a strange look on his face. He said, “Did you put Icy Hot in my swim trunks?” I told him about me swiping the Icy Hot while he was in the shower that morning and when I showered I smeared some on the inside of his trunks. I’d been waiting all day for this moment. By this time Ben was in quite a bit of discomfort. He took off running out of the room, down the hall, through the pool room, out to the patio, and jumped into the hot tub hoping that the water would dilute the Icy Hot and end his suffering.
The bubbling water worked just as he hoped it would and he was soon back to normal. I made a comeback for the ages. Ben surrendered and I was the prank war champion.
A week or two later the store was ready to go and we went back to work at our separate stores in Oklahoma City. Soon after, he moved to Houston. He now lives in San Antonio and has no plans on moving back to Oklahoma City. I have no plans to move to San Antonio.
Here’s what I learned. Ben and I only had a few short months of our lives where our paths crossed. We formed a friendship that will stand the test of time, but we’ll likely never experience anything or create any memories like we did during those days we spent traveling back and forth to Texas. By making the most of what time we had together, we accomplished a few things. We made those days away from our families working long hours, and living out of a hotel, pass quickly. I helped set up 15 stores in my nearly 19 years working for the bookstore, and those two stores with Ben were by far the most enjoyable and the most memorable.
Whether you’re doing something that you love to do or trudging through something that you’d rather not do, every situation can be made better by making the best of it. Maybe a prank war is not the best relief for your situation, but take a couple of minutes each day to identify the bright spots of the situation and be grateful for those things. Also, the people that we care about most won’t always be in our lives. Take advantage of the times together you have. Your time together may not last forever, but your memories will.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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