Three Years Ago - Thanksgiving Friday

As I was working my usual shift at the Alumni House today I couldn't help but let my mind wander. I started thinking about how excited I was for the Thanksgiving weekend to finally be here (in Canada anyways). I can definitely use the break, and I am so excited to see my family again. However, I couldn't help but recall a certain Friday of the Thanksgiving long weekend three years ago... Just the thought of it made me smile.



It was my first year at the University of Guelph, and I was living in the Townhouse residences where I made friends with some amazing neighbors. I wasn't planning on leaving for my long journey back to Ottawa until Saturday afternoon of the long weekend because I was offered a drive with my cousin. For whatever reason, my good friends Kevin, Dave and Drung also weren't leaving until Saturday and so we inevitably ended up hanging out that Friday night. 

The evening started out as most Fridays usually did; we sat around watching tv, playing video games, and drinking some well deserved alcohol. Then around midnight we suddenly realized that we were hungry. Fortunately, the long weekend gave us the perfect excuse to cook all the things that could possibly go bad in our fridge. This led to us making the most amazing midnight breakfast I've ever had.


Yup. I told you it was amazing. We found as many frying pans as possible and grilled up some scrambled eggs, breakfast sausages, and an insane amount of bacon. I think there might have even been toast!

Looking at this picture makes me smile. We haven't changed at all...Drung with his cute corduroy pants and burgundy polos and Kevin with his vast collection of green shirts.
After eating what was possibly the best drunken meal I've ever made, we started plotting our next prank (pranks had become a huge theme throughout that year). Alexey was the final roommate living in the boy's townhouse, but he had been foolish enough to leave his door slightly ajar and unlocked before going back home. Thus began the plans to mess up his room for when he got back to school on monday night.

I can't take any credit for the prank really - I did none of the hard work, but it was an amazing prank regardless. Me and Dave (who had a broken ankle at the time) sat aside and watched as Drung and Kevin moved all the furniture in Alexey's room so that it was completely surrounding the door. We made sure that the door could open fully so that Alexey could get a full view of the barricade when he stepped inside his room. We also ensured that all the furniture was placed in the worst possible position, just to make sure Alexey would have a hard time moving his furniture back without anything toppling over.


We were so proud of our prank. We made sure we locked the door so that Alexey wouldn't suspect anything when he got home. That's when we suddenly realized that we had forgotten to turn off his lights. Alexey's room faced the front of the house, and if he got home at night he might be able to see into the second floor window and see that his furniture had been displaced. Being drunk at the time, we reasoned that this would mean our prank had been completely ruined.


We went outside to investigate and to our horror we could see all of the furniture we had carefully moved stacked to one side of the wall. Our minds quickly raced to find a solution...Alexey always left his window unlocked. If we could just get to his window we might be able to pry it open and climb in, thus being able to turn off the lights. 

Dave and I once again stood back and let the able-bodied boys handle things. I took it as an opportunity to take pictures as Drung gave Kevin a lift to try to reach the windowsill. Despite being tall, they just weren't tall enough. Not easily phased and still intoxicated we decided to up the stakes.


We moved the bench that was in the backyard to the front of the townhouse and proceeded to use it as a ladder. Drung held the bench steady while Kevin just managed to reach the window. Dave stood by while I hid in the bushes to keep an eye out to make sure no RA caught us behaving so suspiciously. 

The one flaw to this plan was that I had no idea what the RA for the area looked like. Kevin was still fumbling with the window when I saw a small, frail girl come out of the main residence hall with laundry. She then proceeded to ask the guys what they were doing; I figured she was just curious about how stupid her fellow neighbors were behaving. Then to my horror the guys started acting very awkwardly, and I realized that this was their RA.

Kevin immediately jumped down from the bench and managed to invent a story about how they had noticed their housemate had left his light on, and how they were chivalrously trying to turn it off to save energy. For some reason she bought it. I'm sure she was skeptical and very concerned, but she bought it nonetheless. Maybe she felt sympathy for Dave who was in a cast and crutches? To this day I'm still surprised she didn't notice Alexey's disheveled furniture in the window.

As pathetic as it sounds, I was still hiding in the bushes at this point so I wasn't subjected the the RA's disapproval. She told the boys to head inside and forget about Alexey's lightbulb. The guys quickly moved the bench back to their backyard and retreated to their townhouse. I had to wait until the RA left the area before I crawled out from under the bushes to join them - if anything would have made her more suspicious...it would have been the fact that I was hiding in a juniper. Once inside we had a good laugh about the whole situation and detoxed for half an hour before I headed home for my bed. 

What makes me laugh the most is that this adventure occurred three years ago on the Friday before Thanksgiving...and probably also took place at the same time I'm posting this blog now. Three years ago I was with some very great people - who I'm fortunate enough to still have as my friends today. 

Another thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Labels: ,