{a best friend + a few new friends}

yesterday i had one of the most random experiences that i’ve had in a long time (maybe ever). it involved a best friend, as well as 2 full, and 6 partial, new friends. confused? let me start at the beginning…

last week i got an e-mail from a friend of mine telling me that a store downtown was giving away mannequins, and that if i wanted any, i could call the store manager and arrange to come pick up one or two of them. i was instantly excited at the prospect of having a mannequin of my very own, and called the manager to talk details. she told me that they had a couple leg mannequins, as well as a possible sitting mannequin. she said that i could come in and see them and decide if i wanted to take any home with me. 

so…yesterday jyl and i hopped in the car and headed downtown to see what it was all about.

we went into the store and met heidi, who led us down to the basement through the door marked ‘authorized personnel only’, to the storage unit. and there they were, 3 sets of plastic legs, lined up so perfectly one behind the other. knowing that many of my friends would be just as excited as i to have one of them, i told her that i would take them all if that was possible, as well as the full body, sitting one, if it was available. she said that i could definitely have the leg ones, and that she would check to see if the sitting one was available. so we walked back upstairs to talk with the manager, who told us that i could have the sitting mannequin, as well as one other bonus one that was upstairs in their other storage. this was when i got really excited.

so jyl and i left the store to move my car closer, laughing about how we were going to have 5 mannequins to bring home with us, and wondering what we were going to do with them all. once the car was moved, we went back inside to look for heidi, who we were supposed to meet again by the storage area entrance. that was easier said than done, however. where was she?

we didn’t know. but we kept looking and eventually found her. back to the storage room we headed, loading up the 3 leg mannequins and the 2 full body ones. just as we were about to head to the car to load all this up, heidi asked us if we would like 3 more upper leg ones that she randomly pulled out of the back corner of the storage unit (notably looking very excited to be showing these to us). at this point it was already a hilarious experience, leaving with far more mannequins than i had thought, so i said ‘sure. why not?’ as we added three more to the cart.

and to the car we headed, arms in hand and bodies thrown over the shoulder.

a few moments later we were all loaded up, heading home with a car full of plastic limbs. thank goodness it was halloween and we didn’t look as weird as we maybe normally would…

once back at home, we set them all up to show mykell, our third roommate. two sat at the dinner table while the other 6 paraded against the wall. weird to say the least (and crazy random as i said earlier).

it was honestly one of the funniest experiences ever. as jyl said, undoubtedly the weirdest thing she and i had ever done together. i can safely say that i 100% agree with that statement. a perfect ending to stressful week. don’t you love unexpected surprises?