Bio: As with several of the other couples, I knew these two as friends before they started dating, and it was awesome to watch them fall in love and get married. Also something I appreciate about them is that they still hang out with me and my crew from time to time even though they are studly married folk now. Teresa and I share several traits. We both went to Baylor, are both social, both work in communication/design, and both of us thought Dave’s house looked kind of dumpy before she moved in and revamped it. Dave and I have different personalities but get along great. He is kind of a dork but owns it and is such a genuine person that everyone loves him. One legendary ski trip he and I basically acted out the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, voicing all the characters, on the long drive home. (News flash! I’m kind of a dork too.) Dave also was my accountability partner for a couple years, and his investment in me made such an impact on my life.
Challenge: Coordinate and participate in a FLASH MOB! Recruit at least 30 people and do it in a crowded public setting. Have fun! P.S. – if someone else has you doing something similar, you can just cook us a meal at our house or take a Zumba class with Teresa.
Reaction: This is AWESOME! I love flash mobs, and now that I’m reading this, I’m surprised no one has given me this challenge before. I enjoy attention, and have to say I’m pretty good at the whole choreography thing. So this challenge is perfect for me. Now who can I recruit, and where can I do it?
Recap: I got this challenge on a Wednesday, and I knew right off that to do the flash mob I wanted to would take more than a day to put together. I wanted music, dancing, craziness! So I decided to give myself a little extra time to plan and coordinate. I decided to do it on Friday. Friday’s challenge had not been delivered yet, while Thursday’s had, so I could make this challenge work for two days!
I thought of several possible locations, like the mall or downtown somewhere, but ruled them out. People have done stuff at the mall before, as well as downtown. I wanted my flash mob to be original and unique, maybe at a business one of my friends worked at. Then I had a brilliant idea. My friend Morgan worked at Lifeway Christian bookstores off NW Expressway. Easy, central location, with a captive audience of someone who would totally enjoy a flash mob. I bet they’ve never had a flash mob there before! Also, just in case her management had a cow about it and fired her, Lifeway was a second job for her and was not her main source of income. Morgan is a fiery free spirit, and I felt sure she would adore a random visit from her friends. Location picked.
Next hurdle was people. I was glad Dave and Teresa said “recruit” 30 people rather than “30 people must participate.” I got to work on inviting my 30. Lots of texts and e-mails. Several people were interested, and several more were not. Flash mobs are sort of divisive activities.
However, as I talked with more and more friends about the plan, it became apparent that I could catch the largest group of them on Thursday rather than Friday. I didn’t want to double-down on challenges, but it didn’t look like I had a choice. I planned it for right after work on Thursday, everyone meeting up at 5:00 in the parking lot around the corner from the Lifeway store.
I wanted to make sure Morgan was there, so I put my sneaky hat on and sent her a message asking about hanging out Thursday at 5:00. “Sad, can’t. L Have to work” was her reply. Perfect.
Now for the dance. I have wonderful friends, but they aren’t all rhythm champions. And we had essentially zero time to rehearse. So I needed a dance that everyone already knew and that was simple. Incredibly simple. Addictively simple? BAM. Welcome back to 1995, it’s time for the Macarena!
So all the pieces were falling into place. Dance: Macarena. Location: Lifeway Bookstore. Guests: 30 invited, about 8 for sure show ups and possibly 3 more able to come. The plan was going perfectly. Which meant it was all about to fall apart.
I arrived at the meeting place about 30 minutes early. A big, abandoned Circuit City was next to the Lifeway store, so I parked the car and tried to calm my beating heart. In order to pull off this challenge (technically from the day before), I knew I would have to break the new challenge I had opened that morning from my friend Evan. (More on that in the next post.) I decided it would just be a short period anyway, and he wouldn’t need to know.
Brave and bold friends began arriving – Jason, Shyla, Amber, Michele (who drove in from out of town in time for the flash mob), Hugh, Jenny, Kat, Andrew and Samantha. It was blazing hot outside, so we huddled under the decaying circuit city sign while I went over the plan. We did a Macarena practice run. Everyone did great.
I had brought a mini boom box with me and a CD with latin-ish music on it. The plan was this. We would wander into the store in groups of two or three. The first group (Andrew and Jenny) would locate Morgan and pretend to be interested in some merchandise at the back of the store. The rest of us would then filter in while they distracted her. I would find an outlet and get the CD ready, push play, blow a whistle I’d brought with me, and we’d form a triangle in the front of the store and do our dance.
We were waiting to see if anyone else would show up, and Jason called our roommate Evan to see if he wanted to come. Evan, the guy whose challenge I was supposed to be doing. Evan, who told Jason to tell me that no, he wasn’t coming and that I had to re-do his challenge because I’d cheated. Which was true. Busted.
Then Hugh started to get a little freaked out. Apparently he gets really nervous about public craziness, which is understandable. I told him he could take pictures/video and document the event if he felt too uncomfortable to participate. He considered this for a moment, then decided he still couldn’t do it – he would be too embarrassed just watching us be embarrassing. So he left.
Sensing my flash mob beginning to fall apart, I initiated the plan.
Andrew and Jenny went into the store. A minute later, Amber and Michele went in followed by Samantha and Kat. Jason, Shyla and I were in the last group. Waiting another minute was actually excruciating, because we watched this frumpy looking middle-aged lady go in the store, and I just knew she would not enjoy our upcoming spectacle. But what can you do?
At last our time arrived. My group went in. A quick look around the store showed not many people were in there, which was disappointing but I guess I should not have been surprised. It was Thursday afternoon at a Christian bookstore. I moved quickly into the book section to hide the boom box and scouted for a power outlet. I found one amongst the framed art section (why do Christian bookstores always have gratuitously large religious paintings for sale? Who buys that stuff?) I went over and plugged in the box. But the power light did not come on. No juice.
I went to the next outlet over. Tried it again. Still no power. I looked around. Amber, Kat, Michele and Samantha had formed a group one row into the books and were staring at me and whispering nervously. Each passing second frayed all our nerves more. I did not anticipate how fast my heart beat would be at that moment. Preparing to be brazenly loud in a quiet, dignified setting got my blood running!
I crossed to the other side of the store and tried some outlets on the far wall. No juice. Drat. The music wouldn’t work. It would have to just be our voices. I went back to the holy knickknacks section and set up the video camera.
All eyes were on me from my team, waiting for me to initiate. I took a few deep breaths to calm my very rattled nerves and moved to the center. Better just to get it over with. I saw Jenny and Andrew coming towards us, which meant Morgan was about to get the surprise of her week.
“Who’s ready for a Morgan mob?” I shouted (cleverly), though my voice sounded less confident in the stately bookstore than I’d hoped.
My wonderful friends rushed out and we created our ragged formation. Morgan stepped out and gasped, laughed, and clapped. We did the Macarena.
Well, here, see for yourself. (Video forthcoming)
It was fun. Not as Hollywood polished as I had pictured in my head, but whatevs. She loved it, we did it, great challenge. Done and done.
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