I love a good prank. If I could I would prank much more often but I don't think my friends would be able to withstand it { and they might get me back in a really really nasty way }. A few years ago though, a like-minded colleague and myself got ourselves wrapped in a year long prank rivalry. It got the attention of our friends, families and co-workers and made the day to day more than a little on edge. 

It started innocently with a swedish fish sweetie i found tossed on my desk. Thinking it was the co-worker next to me being silly I tossed it back on her desk and kept working, she tossed it back and I returned it and thought nothing of it. Then two days later when on the phone with a client I opened my desk to retrieve my calculator to plug in some numbers only to find the same swedish Scotch taped to the screen of my calculator. Very funny. Very funny indeed. 

Not to be outdone I held onto the fish. 

Then a few weeks later, stuck it on the file of one of my co-workers key clients. 

Month's later when I returned from a two week vacation I pounced to pick up my phone while regaling the room with tales of my trip only to 'hear' a crunchy crackle on the phone. The Swedish fish had been taped to the earpiece of the phone. 

The battle went on for months with co-workers and friends suggesting where and how to incorporate the fish into the others life. 

I found it on a stick of deodorant one morning when rushing to get ready for work. She found it replaced her mouse's rollerball, I found it stuck to a dollar bill in my pocket when I popped into a Starbucks one evening, she found it packaged and labeled with a bunch of samples she was about to send to a client. Everyday the fish was out of my hand I lived in slight trepidation of where it would appear or when. It could be at home, at work, at the gym..anyone's guess really. Who thought a little piece of jelly like candy could cause such a hubbub in one's life?

The final straw came when the fish was in my hands. I had to get my colleague back and I had to get her good, so I held on to it for months..hoping she'd forget about the Swedish fish, hoping she'd stop looking for it, anticipating it's entry into her world. To be honest, I was out of ideas - I didn't know how to get her really good. Then the answer came to me. I overheard my colleague booking a three week class in Italy - to learn the language, live the culture and study abroad. It was now or never. 

So, in the weeks that led up to the trip to Italy I slyly asked my colleague where she was going to stay, the name of the school she was with and what dates she would arrive and leave. With all that information in hand, I went about creating fake letterhead stationery with the school's logo. An Italian co-worker translated a piece of text i'd written for the letter into Italian. I wrote the letter, attached the Swedish Fish and mailed it out hoping it would make it before my colleague returned to the USA. The letter said:

Dear XXXX,

We at the School of Italian Studies hope you are enjoying your trip to the lovely town of XXX in Italy and that you are learning much. 
Please see below more information we need to send to you:

SWEDISH FISH WAS ATTACHED HERE

Kind regards, 
Name of the school President

Apparently she received the letter in her dorm. Saw the fish and couldn't for the life of her understand how on earth the school had got the fish from me and sent it...then she realised it was all a fabrication. So one Friday afternoon in the summer I got a text that simply said: 
"I'm Speechless."

My job was done. 