Why Are You Following Me ?

James N is an accomplished attorney,
and a good friend of our family.

So there we (myself, my oldest son, and Aaron B) were, almost home from our return trip** to Camp Cris Dobbins, when we spied our Young Men's President, James N, just a little ways up the street.  So we drove up next to him and chatted with him for a little bit.  He was out jogging and had stopped in to say hi to his sister, but she wasn't at her house so he was just going to head back home.  And off he went.  **(it was a make-up day for the scouts to finish the merit badges they had started at camp a month ago before we were evacuated due to the Black Forest fire).

I started to turn the car around when Aaron joked and said "You should totally follow him all the way home, like we're stalking him."  We all laughed ... and then I did EXACTLY THAT!

I drove a little ways up the street.  James heard us coming and, thinking we were joking about running him over, he ran off at a sprinter's pace.  I quickly pulled to the side of the road and instructed the boys to pretend like we were looking at something in the neighbor's yard.  And off he went.  The boys were giggling.

After he turned the corner, I sped up the street and slowly rounded the corner.  He was alittle ways down the street but must have felt our presence somehow because he turned around to look back at us.  By that time I had pulled over next to another house, and the boys were dutifully looking at the sidewalk.  James shook his head ... And off he went.  Now the boys were laughing loudly.

I drove a little further down the street and James turned around, running backwards, with his arms stretched outward while giving us a "What is going on?!" kind of look.  I stopped the van in the middle of the street and just looked down.  When I looked up, James had stopped too, but he just shook his head again ... And off he went.  This time, quite rapidly.  I was worried about the boys' ability to breath as they were gasping for air between bouts of roaring laughter.

I came around the curve in the road to see him run around another corner, so I sped up trying to catch him before he got too far up the next street.  I flew around the corner and quickly came to a stop sign.  Several things happened all at once:
 - I looked up and down that street but James was no where to be seen.
 - Aaron shouted from the back seat "Oh no!  He's in the tree!"
 - Josh shouted "Ahhh!  Here he comes!  Drive!  DRIVE!!!"
 - And James started banging on the passenger side window while shouting the title of this blog post.

I rolled the window down and we all enjoyed a good laugh about the experience.  James expressed his changing thoughts and emotions, while I recounted the hilarious laughter coming from these two young men.  We said good bye to James ... And off he went.  The boys chuckled and did that long sigh you get after laughing very hard.

But, I decided, that it wasn't over YET!

I raced off in the opposite direction of James and took a back way to the next major intersection he would be crossing.  The boys were literally begging me to stop.  I pulled the car to the side of the road (in a turn lane) and put my hazard lights on.  And there we sat for about 3 minutes until we saw James come to the light at the corner.  The boys started laughing even louder and then James looked toward our vehicle.  The look on his face was a mix of shock, fear, amusement, and maybe a little despair.  He stretched his arms outward again giving us a "Seriously guys?!" kind of look ... And off he went.

I have never heard these boys laugh so long, so loudly, or so hard in the years I have spent at various activities with them.  It was pure joy and a memory that none of us will likely ever forget.  Thanks James for being a willing(?) victim of our harmless stalking.


Song Of The Day:
I have several CDs by an a capella group that goes by the name InsideOut.  I love their harmonies but also appreciate the humor of some of their songs.  What a perfect post to use "The Stalking Song" which is set to the tune of Happy Together by the Turtles.

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