There are only a handful of things that have ever happened to me, or that I have witnessed, that make me burst out laughing just thinking about them.  Most of them involve us as young kids bored out of our minds on the farm during summer vacation and playing tricks on Granny, who lived right next to us in the trailer house.

There was the time a very young Alex and cousin Katie thought it would be a great idea to fill up a 10-gallon bucket of water and dump it on Granny’s carpet, just to terrorize her.  Just picturing a 6 and 7-year old struggling so hard to carry that huge bucket, and then struggling to tip it over as Granny tried to stop them… How could that possibly have been a good idea?  But it makes me laugh retelling the story.

And there was the time Luke Katuin fell backwards down the Metrodome steps while carrying a 40 oz. cup of Coke and a footlong hotdog.  Or the time a man the row in front of me tripped over his seat and fell backwards down the Metrodome steps after a game into a container of nacho cheese that someone discarded.  Or the time Jason lost his balance and tumbled backwards down the Metrodome steps, losing $14 worth of beer.

I wish I could think of a few more examples, but that sets the tone for the story anyway.

Well, yesterday there was another such moment.  And for this moment, you either truly have to know my manager at work, or you just had to be there.  But trust me, if you were involved, you would burst out laughing every time you thought about this too.

At noon Tuesday, Aaron saw our HR guy in his office with his door closed and wanted to play a trick on him.  He has a big vertical window to his office alongside the door, and Aaron wanted to peek into Dean’s office by “flying in” horizontally from the side.  Aaron would grab on to the window pane, and I’d lift his legs off the ground to stabilize him.  Dean would be so confused as to how Aaron maneuver his body in such a position!

Aaron raced into the office to ask for my assistance, and I agreed that it sounded like a can’t-miss idea.  Aaron grabbed onto the window pane with his fingertips, and I grabbed him by the ankles and lifted him up.  Little did we know, Aaron’s fingertips weren’t strong enough to support the entire upper half of his body.  The second I got Aaron’s legs a few feet off the ground—BAM!  Aaron’s upper half slammed head-first into the carpet.  I was still holding his legs four feet in the air, so I dropped them to the ground as well.  We looked around and made sure no one saw us before racing back to the marketing office where I laughed uncontrollably for some time.

Just the very idea that we both thought this would work so seamlessly and to have it fail so miserably was hilarious.  The company’s entire marketing department took the time to perpetrate such a ridiculous stunt, and then to do it so unsuccessfully… Dean never got to see Aaron fly into his office, but I bet he sure as hell wondered what that crash was outside his door at 12:05pm.

And just typing this has me in hysterics.  But again, you probably had to be there.