Hopefully the quotations around kidnapping made you realize that Darin wasn't really kidnapped in reality. His birthday is coming up next week. He's never been one for surprise parties or anything like that, so to respect that, I had a different idea. I called up a good buddy of his a couple of weeks ago and asked him if he could round up a few guys to come "kidnap" Darin and to take him out for a night on the town. He needed a good guy night. From there, Kelly (the guy I originally called) took the reigns and planned with a few of Darin's other friends to go and get him at work before he got home that evening. They wanted to, according to Kelly, "scare the pee out of him". So I called one of the other professors on Darin's floor and began scheming with him. The plan was for Kelly to call me when he and the other guys got to Darin's office floor. I would in turn call this professor who would then call Darin into his office to talk to him about something. Meanwhile, the guys planned to sneak by and hide in various places in Darin's office. Eventually when Darin came back in, they would jump out to scare him, grab him (hence the kidnapping) and take him out for the evening. All that to say...that plan busted. Of all days, Darin decided to go play racquetball that afternoon.
So...backup plan. The guys all met up at the gym where Darin plays and I met them up there with my trusty camera to get a video of the action. Here's where it got complicated. When he and whoever he was playing with finish a game, they come hang out in the hall. I went in first to make sure was still in the court. Turns out he was. Just as the guys were shuffling in behind me, guess who steps out. Yeah...so I turned around and told them to jump back behind the wall out of sight. It actually worked. I went ahead and walked in with Zoe and as Darin bent over to talk to Zoe, I pulled his opponent aside and told him to get Darin to go get a drink of water with him. He gave me a funny look but obliged. So as the two rounded the corner, I motioned for Darin's friends who were still glued to the wall outside to come in. They ran and found spots in the court to go hide. A minute or so later, Darin came back and as hoped decided to play another quick game. The rest can be viewed on the video. It totally caught Darin off guard...funny to watch. So once the "kidnapping" was over and Darin had changed, they headed to Hot Springs to go to some place called Buffalo Wild Wings. Just the place for four guys who all have bottomless pits for stomachs. Monday night is an all you can eat on about 14 different styles of buffalo wings. And to top it off, there are TV's all over the place. Three words...MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. What a recipe for testosterone.
Darin's not the kind of guy who just shows his excitement like girls tend to. You have to search for his. Over the last 5 years, I've been able to pick up on the fact that you can find his excitement in his stories following whatever event it was. If he is full of stories to tell me, he had a great time (which was the case last night). And I think he was proud of the fact that between the 4guys, they ate a total of 125 wings...and amongst those were blazin' wings (the hottest of the hot). What a night...
(don't forget to pause the music player on the left side to hear the video)
He never saw anyone hidden. Buddy - the guy who grabbed him from behind - remained anonymous until he let Darin down. That's what made it so good. Kelly is the one that you see come grab his legs. Dave - the unseen guy just laughed through the whole event.
That's funny!
ReplyDelete