Sunday, February 27, 2011

This Could Explain A Lot

I spoke with my sister Kelly today and she is ready to pick the winner of the CSN $45 GIVEAWAY tomorrow. She is especially ready now that I finally told her she is picking the winner. Maybe she should read this here little blog more often so she can keep up with the things I am volunteering her for. Anyway, remember to enter as tomorrow is your last chance. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me the craziest thing you and your sibling, (they can be actual, inherited or chosen), have ever gotten yourselves into. Come on, you know you want to.

To finish off this tell all contest, I thought I would repost something I wrote way back. It's a little story about something horrid I did to my sisters. It's still one of my favorite and all time best practical jokes ever played on them. So far. Here ya go....


Have you ever done something that you knew you really should not do, but you also knew if you didn’t do it, you would always wish you had? Yeah? Me too!


A few years ago, one of my aunts passed away. It was very sudden and sad for so many reasons. One of those reasons was her husband, my dad’s brother. When I got the call that Aunt Audrey had died and Uncle Louie had been taken to the hospital because of his heart, I got on the first available plane to California. My sisters and I were responsible for Uncle Lou since he and Aunt Audrey had “adopted” us in their will, not to mention, we loved that crazy, old couple. As I flew out the next morning, I wondered how my uncle would ever live without his wife. Eleven days after arriving in California and bringing Louie home to live with my dad, my uncle passed away in his sleep. I remain thankful to this very day for being able to spend those last days with him.


Surely, you can imagine the stress of dealing with two deaths in twelve days, not to mention having to clean out a house full of fifty years of junk. Then there was selling the house and closing accounts, notifying family and friends. It would have been overwhelming at times if my sisters and I had not had one another. Even so, we did get a bit crazy here and there along the way. Case in point:



I had taken care of Aunt Audrey’s cremation but had not picked up her ashes yet. I was too busy taking care of my Uncle Louie, who was obviously not doing well. When he passed away so soon after Aunt Audrey, I ended up having to retrieve two boxes of ashes at once. My sisters would have no part of the ashes thing, so they did all the administrative stuff. Driving back to my dad’s house with my aunt and uncle buckled in the backseat … hey, I did not want to take any chances of a Stephen King type event on the freeway … I started to get irritated. How come my sisters always get to look good, smell good and take care of the easy crap, while I am always wiping butts or driving dead people around? That’s when I began to devise my plan.



My aunt and uncle did not want a funeral. They specifically stated in their wills that they were to be cremated and the ashes sprinkled at sea. I had taken care of the cremations and my sisters had made the arraignments for the sprinkling at sea with the Neptune Society. When I arrived home and found my sisters had gone out … probably for a nail or hair appointment or some other stupid girl thing … I placed my aunt and uncle in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet and went to work.



First, I ran out to the front garden carrying a plastic bowl and big spoon with me. I quickly filled the small bowl half full with the fine, powdery dirt in my parent’s front planter. Next, I ran back into the house and dug through my mother’s junk drawer finding exactly what I was hoping would be there … chalk. I placed the chalk in the bowl with the soil and grabbed a potato masher out of the pottery crock on the counter. As I mashed the chalk into the soil being careful to leave just the right size and shape pieces, I literally began to sweat with anticipation. For a split second, I imagined my mother standing next to me ready to thump me upside my head in the hopes of knocking some sense into me. Luckily for me, my mom had died two years earlier or she would have killed me right then and there.



Once the bowls content was the exact color and consistency of what I imagined people ashes might look like, I grabbed three plain, white envelopes from the desk drawer in the foyer along with a blue, ink pen. Carefully writing each of my sisters names along with my own, one on each envelope, I could only imagine their faces when this was over. I then slowly scooped a few spoonfuls of “ashes” into each envelope, sealed them and placed them in the bottom drawer on top of my aunt and uncle. I laughed out loud, knowing Lou and Aundrey would have loved this! I quickly cleaned up all the evidence and ran upstairs to change and wash up.



No sooner had I come back downstairs, when my sisters walked in the kitchen door. They were happy and chatty as always and had even brought back dinner for all of us. As we sat eating in the kitchen, my older sister asked if I had picked up Uncle Lou and Aunt Audrey. When I said yes, through a mouthful of coleslaw, both their faces dropped.



“Where are they?”



“In the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet.”



“Why are they there?”



“Where would you like me to put them?”



“I don’t know but somehow the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet just doesn’t seem right.”



“Ok, I’ll go get them and we can put them anywhere you two would like.”



At that last comment, they both began screaming, “No! Don’t bring them in here! Leave them there!”



That’s when I did it. I went into the dining room, opened the bottom drawer, took out the three envelopes and took them into the kitchen. I placed one in front of each of us and sat back down.



“By the way, the people at the mortuary gave me these. They are for the service on the boat, you know, when we go to sprinkle the ashes.”



As they each reached for their envelope, my oldest sister asked, “What are they?”



“They’re part of the ashes.”



Both my sisters literally threw the envelopes on the table screaming.



“Don’t be ridiculous, you two. It’s not like they had cooties. All we have to do when we go out on the boat is stand at the railing, say something nice, tear open our envelope and pour. Simple.”



My little sister sat staring at me shaking her head. My older sister looked completely horrified and made it clear, that was not going to happen. That’s when I grabbed my envelope, ripped it open and poured some of the “ashes” into my left hand.



“Look! It’s no big deal. It’s not like they’re going to bite you.”



My sisters jumped up and looked at me like I had completely gone mad, yelling, “Have you lost your mind? What are you doing?”



I replied, “Crap, now I have ashes all over me.” I then reached out and wiped my hands on the front of my oldest sister’s sweater. I truly thought I had killed her by the look of terror on her face.



Falling to the ground, unable to breathe from laughing so hard, I believe I heard “Idiot” right before I heard the front door open and then slam shut.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bow to you, you are the queen!! I love practical jokes, but could never top this one. You, are my idol ;)

XOXO,
Marie

The Duck Herder said...

Yes, I am with Anonymous. ALL HAIL THE QUEEN.

CRACK.


UP.




My ex father in law was kept in the drinks cabinet for many years. Seemed appropriate. And he got lots of visitors.

Delirious said...

Craziest thing....

This was a tough assignment for me, but I think I have one. Every year our family gathers at my parents' home in the summer for a family reunion. Too bad my parents have a 2 bedroom/1 bath home, but have 6 children and 32 grandchildren! (I lost count of the greats). So we all bring tents and camp out on their lawn. We've done a lot of crazy things, like shaving our legs in the ditch because we couldn't get in to the bathroom. But the one that comes to mind is when we decided to make a "alien abduction" video. We did it in the style of that one ghost movie where the kids are going in to the woods and making a video..you know? At one point we decided we needed to spice things up, and someone said that someone in town actually saw a UFO, so we went to interview her. She told us her story, and while we were talking, a little old man in town came up and started telling us his story too! Some day I'll post the video. Creepy eepy! (okay, that's not so wild and crazy, but my sister and I are about 10 years apart and didn't hang out w hen we were young. lol)

Brian Miller said...

i have tears streaming down my face...my sides hurt...you are awesome...lol

Silver Strands said...

Seriously Marla - do you think ANYONE can even come close to sharing a sibling prank as good as yours? MORE - I WANT MORE! Keep writing!

Glen said...

a quality move - a masterclass!

Teresa said...

hysterical! you are da bomb!

my entry: (i had a hard time with this)
Where I grew up was pretty rural and we lived on a “dead-end” street about mid-way up a hill. When it snowed (which was lots), it made sledding down that street lots of fun. Since there wasn’t a lot of traffic on it, it was also not dangerous. My mom was a night-owl because she said that was the only time of day the seven of us kids didn’t distract her from reading the paper or watching some television. My older sister and I were also night-owls but we knew to not bother mom. One night when I was about 12, and there was about two feet of snow on the ground, my sister and I decided we were going to go play in the snow and get the sleds out. We had three brothers (four girls/three boys) and they usually got the good sleds so we decided on a midnight run. It was probably 1:00 am or so and the moon was out and full. It was a great night to be out – no one to bother us and no boys to fight with over the sleds. We had a great time.

J.J. in L.A. said...

I KNEW there was a reason I liked you! ; )

Not So Simply Single said...

funnier than hell...

WHAT CONTEST? Did I miss it?

Crap.

Oh well...

Lisa

Katie said...

I wish I had the creative genius to think up practical jokes. I don't. Even if I did, though, I wouldn't be able to keep the straight face required to pull something so awesome off.

Nice work!

Okie Book Woman said...

That is hilarious! You are one very creative woman!

red dirt sweetie said...

My Dad came from California to visit and I shared this story with him and we both agreed it was the best ever!