Trouble.

I'm really pumped for this weekend - Cinco de Mayo tonight, going to Manhattan Saturday for a baby shower and pub crawl! (No, sadly, they aren't related events.) It should be a fabulous time with some of my favorite people (Erin, Tab).

I do have a tad bit of trepidation though.

Let me take you back to May 6, 2005. I was living with three girls, it was the week before finals and graduation, and the perfect night to go out. We (Erin, her man Nick, other friends) started the night at Nick's house. Across the street there was a bachelor party going on. The front yard was filled with house lamps, tables covered with food, coolers, and lawn games. Suddenly all of the guys went inside & started hooting & hollering (we found out later they had a stripper scheduled on the wrong night, so one of the biggest guys was doing his own "routine").

I, of course, decided that I needed to go over there & check out what was going on. Honestly though, my stomach was starting to hurt from drinking beer and I knew I needed some food to settle it. So, with Nick's party watching from across the street, I started perusing their food, opening a bag of Oreos and helping myself.

When a guy came out the front door I darted to the side of the porch. He couldn't see me, I couldn't see him, but my friends across the street could hardly contain themselves as they watched both of us.

Eventually he went back inside, I had my fill of Doritos & Oreos, and I went back to my side of the street. After a few minutes the guys came back outside we decided to walk to Aggieville. At that point one guy asked us what our plans were, and why we were going to the bars instead of hanging out there. I told him that perhaps, if they maybe had... oh, I don't know, some Oreos? Then maybe we could be convinced to stay.

He ran to the food table, grabbed the bag of Oreos that I had just opened, and held them over his head - just like Lloyd in Say Anything. It was classic.

My friends wet themselves laughing, I gracefully declined (more) cookies, and he was confused.

That was an indication that this was going to be a great night.

The rest of the night included ridiculous booty-shaking dancing, a trip around the pole at Joe's, losing Nick and the rest of the people we (Erin & I) were with, and found my good friend Mark. The bars closed down at 2 and we heading to Gumby's for some Pokey stix with Mark. As we walked home around 3 with Mark and the Stix I decided that I was going to start streaking. I took off my tank top and started yelling. At that precise time a car slammed on their brakes and squealed tires as they reversed back to where we are.

And I freaked out that someone actually saw me, threw my shirt over my chest and ran the rest of the (half block) home with Erin and Mark laughing at me.

That was when I got the great idea though - we were going to go streaking through the quad! I informed Erin & Mark of my brilliant idea and Erin was less than enthused. I really still have no clue how I did it, but I convinced her it was a good idea. I think she never planned on actually following through with it, she was probably just going along with it. Anywho, we got ready - but unfortunately as we were still quite wasted, not as ready as we should have. Erin & I took off our bras, Erin emptied most of her purse - but still being the responsible person she is, brought it for her cell phone and keys to the house - I tried to convince Erin we needed to bring a camera but she refused. We were wearing skirts and flip flops, so we figured... uhh, ready to go!

The walk to the quad wasn't too long, along the way we called Nick and tried to get him to meet us to go streaking. By now it was around 3ish.

The closer we got to the library - which signaled the opening of the quad - the more people we saw. It was so random! 3:30 or so on Friday and the people walking by us were sober and had clearly been studying. Who are they??

Erin & Mark weren't too enthused at the number of people we saw, but there was no way I wasn't going through with it. Right before we passed a couple I ripped off my tank for the second time that night & started screaming, "WE'RE GOING STREAKING THROUGH THE QUADDDDDDDDD!!!!!" A couple of strides into it I turned back and saw Erin and Mark.

Walking.

In their clothes.

Dang!

I started yelling at them, ripped my (stretchy) skirt off over the top of my head, turned round & was relived to see two bare chests running behind me.

This is where some planning would have been handy. The sidewalk opens up and splits into about 4 different directions. I ended up running straight down the middle of the quad. Erin was to my right at an angle and Mark was to the left at an angle. I have no clue when we were stopping, where we were going... yeah... not that it mattered though because next thing I know I saw a man coming at me yelling, "STOP!!! This is the POLICE!!! STOP!!!" I immediately threw my shirt back on and took a sharp right towards Erin, who already had her shirt back on as well. We were still running and yelling what to do at each other. I slowed down majorly as I hopped back into my skirt (should have pulled it back over the head! Fatal error!). The cop was gaining on us, still yelling to stop and that he was going to arrest us if we didn't stop. We finally started speed walking, then eventually stopped.

We were so screwed.

Mark was no where to be seen, I was starting to laugh, and Erin was pissed as hell.

The cop kept asking us who we were, we thought staring at each other and no answering was a fine solution until he said, "If you don't give me your names right now I'll take you down to the station" - before he even finished that mouthful Erin had already said, "Erin Catherine L. That's E-R-I-N..."

Damn!

I gave him my name as well and he informed us he had to call them in to check to see if we had any warrants out for our arrest. As he did this the hilarity of the situation hit me and I started giggling like someone who just got caught with their pants off. Erin did not appreciate my behavior and actually said, "ERIN! Stop! We need to act like we're good girls!"

You know that only made me laugh harder.

The cop tried to be hard on us - he actually said something about getting a ticket as a sexual predator for flashing - that was the only moment I was actually worried for a second. (the reason he was out at the time was because of a flasher that had been on campus that week)

I gave him a "Are you fucking serious?" look as I said, "uhh, we graduate next week, it's 4 a.m. on Friday before finals, we're girls, we don't do this, come on!" That cracked him (he almost laughed) and he let us go after we promised to go straight home (clothing on!). Oh, he also tried to get Mark's name & address out of us, but we told him we didn't know Mark, had just met him that night & convinced him to go with us - yeah right, every guys wishes! lol.

I guess the best part really came when I went to work on Monday and realized that because I worked on campus, in residence life (dorms) that they got the police blotter each day. Then I found out that the director of the department had already checked my full name against my graduation announcement that was posted and everyone I worked with already knew about my adventure. Classy!

After a scolding from my boss' boss about proper technique and planning - tennis shoes, a planned route, meeting location, get away car, etc. I reminded him that 1) I was a college student, 2) it was 4 a.m. on a Friday 3) did he really think we were in a mind frame that allowed for proper planning??

I still have the police blotter - I'll have to scan it in & post it next week. It was an eventful night for the police that included not only us "running naked through the quad" - which sounds dirty compared to "streaking through the quad" - but also some people running around in the goat pen!

Apparently we weren't the only ones who had a crazy night...

Erin's version of the story includes some reference to how white my little cheeks were. I'm sure she'll elaborate for you if you're lucky.