The Robber and The Gnome

I've been struggling with choosing my blog topic all week. Not because I couldn't think of something to write, but because I had way too many choices. While I like to write about things that have a lesson or a so-called moral to the story, I just couldn't pass up writing about "the robber and the gnome," because no matter how many times I think about the first time I heard about it, I laugh every time. So, as you begin to read this, keep in mind that it is purely for amusement and maybe to get some sypmathy for my brave mom who lives her life surrounded by crazy men.

On an early Saturday morning, despite the single digit temperature outside, my father who is training for his second Ironman triathlon, decided to leave for a twenty-mile run. He yelled his good-bye to my mother as he was leaving, notified her that he would be gone running for a decent amount of time, and shut the garage door behind him.

With the house to herself, my mom decided she would take a long hot shower and get ready for the rest of the day. My mother, a past Sparkette at ISU who loves to dance and sing, took her shower that day the same way that she does almost all activities around the house-- singing music at the top of her lungs. She hopped into the hot shower, shampooed her hair, and forgot everything else in the world but the tunes in her head.

As my mother was showering, my dad had only begun to warm up a few miles away from the house. Unlike most other runs, he felt extremetly tired and his body felt fatigued. He continued to run until his leg cramped so bad he had to walk. He decided that regardless of how important the twenty-mile run was to his training, he needed to go home and give his body a rest. Only twenty minutes after he had left the house, my father returned. As he entered the house he heard a "loud screaming," and decided to check on my mom. As he walked closer to their bathroom, he realized that she was was only singing loudly in the shower- just louder than usual because she believed no one would be home for at least a couple of hours. He quietly opened their bathroom door, tiptoed to the edge of the shower, and flung back the shower curtain as he made a funny noise.

When the shower curtain flew open, my mother whipped her body around in surprise to find a 6'4" inch man dressed in a ski mask, black pants, black long sleeve shirt, and black gloves standing only feet away. She let out a shrill scream and hit the shower floor with her arms above her in an attempt to shelter her from "the robber." As seconds passed and she realized the man was laughing, she looked up, and with both anger and relief said, "Steve! You could have killed me!" For the next few hours, although she knew she was no longer in danger and no harm had been done, her anxiety remained high. Every little noise made her jump.

My mom and dad months before the prank was played.

Later that afternoon, as my mom sat in the living room reading her e-mail, she heard a knock on the entrance from the garage. She got up, quickly walked to the door to unlock it (in belief that my brother Paul had stopped by to visit), and opened the door. In bewilderment, she looked out to find no one standing at the door, and to only find the garage door left open. As she stood there trying to figure out what had caused the knock, she heard a high-pitched gnome voice speaking below her (near her feet level). The voice exclaimed, "Hello!" Still shook up from the earlier joke my dad had played on her, my mom leapt into the air, screamed, and looked down to find my brother squatting down on the step and looking up at her. As my mother's heart raced, she could not believe she had been tricked again!

Paul, "the gnome"

So, that's it- the story of the craziness my mother deals with daily. She is a good sport and in the least, has people around her with a good sense of humor. If you aren't satisfied with laughs, I guess if you want to take something out of this story of two completely unrelated pranks played on my poor mother, you could say that it was a good start to help you plan an April Fool's Day joke on someone you love. Or, maybe you have just learned to lock the door to the bathroom when you shower and always look down when you open the door.