Never a Dull Moment

I'm home from San Jose. Actually, I'm also home from Konocti, and from the ladies' retreat as well. As I was pocketing the pen from my room at the ladies retreat, it hit me that it was the third complimentary pen I'd collected from hotel rooms in the space of a week. Maybe the norm for a traveling salesman, but not for a "stay at home mom".

The picture to the left is of three of the handsome gentlemen from the RVCS tennis team who were getting ready to dump water on the cute young ladies of the RVCS tennis team while we were at Konocti. It was in retaliation for the tennis balls the girls had thrown in on them through the removed screen window that morning while they were still sleeping. That of course was in retaliation for the stolen purses, which was in retaliation for...actually, I've lost track of what that was in retaliation for, but you get the idea. It made for an eventful three days! (And for the record, the girls started it!)

But I digress, because this blog is really about my version of the same story my girls have each blogged recently. My apologies for the redundancy but it was too good not to recount. It really began Sunday evening as I was chatting with Johnny's history teacher. She made mention of the fact that the seniors (her son being one of them) were going to be out until all hours of the night TPing the Juniors. Now the thought occurred to me that since Johnny is a junior, our chances of being TP'd that night were rather good. However, I didn't know if all the juniors would be targeted and I hated to ruin a time-honored tradition by spilling information I do not think I was supposed to have had, so therefore I chose not to mention it to the rest of the family. By the time I went to bed (late -- Johnny had three papers due the next morning and I stayed up late with him to offer moral support) I had forgotten anyway.

It was just before three a.m. that Michelle burst into our room to let us know, in a hushed voice, that we were being TP'd. Scott reacted quickly thinking this was a great opportunity to try out his new birthday gift -- a really fancy airsoft mega weapon. I have never been particularly good at thinking coherently when awakened in the middle of the night, and in my defense, I had spent five of the previous nine nights in a hotel room with different roommates. But anyway, I spent the next several minutes worrying that Michelle was going to wake up whatever lady was sleeping in the next bed. Still in a fog, I padded into Catie's bedroom, all the while being warned by the girls to be very quiet, and took a peek at the scallywags TPing our front yard. As I watched the two girls casually decorating our car, I was aware that the rest of the family was downstairs ready to make their move. I awaked enough to call down (quietly) and tell Scott NOT to shoot ANYONE. I then took up my post in the window and watched as I heard Scott open the door, yell out to the girls and fire a round. The girls dropped their TP & scattered, one behind the car & the other out of my line of vision. Then I saw Catie charging down our driveway and chasing down one of the fleeing girls. I could hear the car start and speed away. Curious about the one still hiding, I was surprised to see Catie return to our driveway and run straight behind our car, flushing out the hiding vandal. She then chased her down the street and managed to pull off her hood before she too fled away in her car. Our girls then retrieved all the abandoned TP and were contemplating heading up to TP our neighbor's house when I ordered them inside. It was about this time that I hear a sleepy voice from Johnny's bedroom call, "Hey, what's going on?" He, who all this FUN had been aimed at, slept through the whole thing.

So about 3:20, everyone retreated to their beds completely wide awake...I for one stayed wide awake for a VERY LONG TIME. The next morning was quite difficult in my sleep-deprived state. I know the rest of the family thoroughly enjoyed the experience surprising the TPers, but once was enough for me. I hope next time we get TP'd, we sleep through it.