Tuesday, July 07, 2009

secret 7 - barbie girl


once upon a time many years ago, i had a very good friend that i hung out with all the time. she worked at the same newspaper i did and was in charge of all the kids who had paper routes, so i used to tease her about whether she'd done her paper route that day. i actually used to tease her about a lot of things. because she could take it and she could tease back.

we had a lot of great times together. we ran the hash. we had sloth weekends where we did nothing but play nintendo all weekend. we played cards into the wee hours of the night. we had a game called "drink two" where you had to name who sang a song first when it came on the radio and if you did it, the others all had to take two drinks of their drink (i was rubbish at that game). we watched star trek: next generation marathons and real world marathons on MTV. one sloth weekend, my sister and her friend went to target and came back with presents for everyone. they brought me something sparkly and they brought michellea a pork sandwich.

back then, i had a little bit of a thing about barbie. i collected the christmas barbies and other collectible editions of barbie (hmm, maybe that should have been my secret--oh well, consider it a little bonus extra secret, because the real secret is coming up and it's a doozy). these, i had on shelves in my living room. well, michellea wasn't really a barbie girl. and in fact, on one or other sloth weekend, she let it slip that she was kinda freaked out by dolls in general (a bit like i feel about clowns) and that all those barbies staring down from the shelves above the t.v. were kinda freaking her out. i surely laughed maniacally at the time.

well, college ended and we all went our separate ways, moving to other states, but staying in touch. in those days, via telephone, where we could actually have three-way calls due to the miracle of mid-90s technology.

i always kept the doll thing in the back of my mind and then, when a friend was visiting from germany, i told him of the plan i'd been brewing. i would cut up a barbie doll and put the pieces into identical envelopes and send them to michellea from all over the world. i'd send a couple home with him for him to mail from germany. i'd distribute the others to other friends and ask them to send them from places that michellea wouldn't suspect of me. i'd save the envelope with the head myself and send it after a few weeks with a note, revealing it was me and go down in the annals of practical jokedom. it was a genius level practical joke.

so my german friend used his pocket knife to chop up a barbie (it hurt me a little bit to cut up barbie, but it was also cathartic in a way). we carefully placed the pieces of her in identical little manila envelopes and i printed address labels and addressed them. my friend took several of the envelopes and i distrubted the rest to other friends to send from random postmarks.

in those days pre-9/11, my sister actually got a guy who sat next to her on a flight to denver to take one of them and mail it from his home in colorado. he thought it was a hilarious story and thought it would be a riot to take part in it. another friend was going to the bahamas and she took a couple along with her to mail along her journey.

michellea was working at a big university, running a residence hall. the bits of barbie began to trickle in. and she, of course, thought it must be someone in her hall--there was a guy who was a bit delusional and fancying himself the new jesus and he headed her list of suspects. my sister and i were also on her suspect list (she knew us well) and i remember that michellea called me and we had a three-way call with my sister, wherein i remember strongly denying the whole thing, tho' i had to use the mute button to laugh uproariously. then, sadly, the unabomber, who hadn't been caught or active for some time struck somewhere or other and then the bits of barbie began to seem a bit frightening. we heard that michellea's mom wanted her to call the police. so we called her& right away and told her it was us and that it was just a practical joke. by then, i had sent the head, revealing the trick.

michellea never did get all of the pieces of barbie, some were lost in the mail. she kept them in a shoe box for quite awhile thereafter. and she had to admit, unabomber aside, that it was a pretty good practical joke. the only thing is is that she's not yet paid me back for it. so i'm still on guard.

18 comments:

Extranjera said...

I think I'm more freaked out by the Barbie shelf above the television than your joking genius. Although that freaks me out too. Remind me never to give you my address.

And my VW is foner. Really.

spudballoo said...

Yes I'm with Extra...a whole SHELF of Barbies? As an adult? Hmmm, I'm a little worried...

LOVE the secret and the joke though, real proper LOL stuff...she is soooo going to get you back good and proper one day though! Be afraid...

Liz Fulcher, The Fragrant Muse said...

Like the ladies above, I wouldn't have taken you for an adult barbie girl, but as a grown woman who likes fairy gardens and dollhouses, I'm not about to pass judgement.

It was an incredibly well-thought out joke. Maybe she'll read this post and remember she owes you some pain.

Extranjera said...

Okay, now Muse also freaks me out.
Barbies and fairies....
What ever happened to such healthy stuff as death metal, aerobics, and collecting your own fingernail clippings?

Unknown said...

Omg - thats just pure barbie evil lol

tracy

julochka said...

guys, i don't have the barbie collection anymore...i long ago let sabin play with them, so they're all naked with ratty hair and stuffed into a box in her room. she informed me this morning, when i took out a selection to photograph for this post, that i could take them to the good will because she didn't play with them anymore.

so, just to be clear, no more psycho barbie collection for me. i did finally grow up on that one. :-)

Anonymous said...

I think your secret has just opened the door to a very public revenge!

will said...

May I please have your mailing address?

Sincerely,
Ken

Dutchbaby said...

The Unabarbie is prankster genius. The saddest part of this story is that, post nine eleven, we can not even fathom a prank like this.

Unknown said...

BRILLIANT! Although the fact that you do have my address does worry me a little!
I think you're in for a big revenge now! Do let us know!

Indiri Wood said...

Hmmm... Now where oh WHERE could Michellea find a collection of people all over the world to help with a joke... What kind of place would have people from Denmark, the US, SA, Britain,... ;)

Sarah said...

Just goes to confirm my assertion that you are an EVIL genius.

Laura Doyle said...

holy crap, you're hilarious! I never would have pegged you with a doll fascination though. Very interesting. ; )

alleycat said...

i used to break off the heads of my sister's dolls and throw them out of the window (from the 11th floor)..im sure she hated me for that...
your secret though is quite cute..

kristina said...

wow. that is... scary and funny. and scary. ;-)
will be interesting to see how many strange packages you will receive in the near future.

vw: pawailot - what pa does when someone steps on his toes

Optimistic Pessimist said...

This is fantastic! I have a friend who runs a residence hall at a big ten university...I am so going to cut up a barbie and mail him the pieces from all around the country.

Maybe I can send the pieces to some blogger friends and they can mail them to him. You have just made my night!

Char said...

so twisted and funny

Mary Ellen said...

Hilarious!