Ninos Youkhana

* 2 mins

Read 104 books, visited Greece, published 39 blogs and a new domain name called www.KneeNose.com, joined a meeting that had a conference call with President Obama, and I worked with an Army captain who later became Senator Michael E. Hastings in Illinois. All are examples of a few good, funny and interesting things that happened during the year 2014. It was full of good memories, but unfortunately many others I don’t remember.

However, this blog is about one of my fresh memories, a funny story that generated so many laughs and became a source of many other jokes among my friends and I. Before the year was about to end, I got punked. My friends sold me freely distributed bottles of water from our compound. Yes, I paid for free boxes of bottled water. My friends couldn’t stop making fun of me for a few days. Here is how it happened:

Pallets of drinking water are available for free inside our compound. However, earlier in the year, we had a specific brand that I didn’t like. The water is clean, but has no minerals, which meant if I was dehydrated after a workout, I could’ve drank four bottles and remained dehydrated. I was simply filling my stomach with water. As a result, I used to buy a different brand from the local market in Baghdad.

Prior to my return from a temporary assignment in Basrah, the embassy had switched the water contract to the band I like.

My friends knew of my return date; they told me on the phone that they bought five boxes of the water I liked and put them in my room. I was happy. When I arrived, they were waiting for me at the front of our building. I had not seen some of them for months. They started to jump and dance jokingly welcoming me back. They helped carry my luggage inside my room, and immediately started pointing to the boxes of water.

“Hey…man…here’s the water we bought…we even carried it in for you”. My friends said.

I didn’t even have my backpack off before they started to talk about the money and how I should pay them now. I should have been suspicious right then.

Anyway, I paid them $15 right at the spot and it was over.

Next day, I went outside for a few minutes to get some sun. They didn’t expect to see me at their smoking area. I don’t smoke; there was no reason for me to be there. The moment I turned the corner, I was shocked. I saw the same water I drink…a pallet of my favorite brand sitting outside for everyone to grab for free.

They exploded with laughter. They had planned to sell me the entire pallet of water behind our building.

Word of the punk spread through our section during the day. For the next two days, my friends were trying to sell me everything around, even the phone on my desk. They demanded that I write about the prank to remember it for the rest of my life. I promised I would.

After a few days, this practical joke inspired me to create a new “Happy Memories” category in my blog. My aim is to capture those small random events and deposit them in long-lasting memory account, by writing about them. I am connecting the dots in my life. And, I want them to be more than just a picture post on Facebook that didn’t tell the whole story.

It serves as a reminder of good times during my life. Unfortunately, many of our good memories fade away. I feel the bad ones tend to stay with us longer.

In writing about my good times, I hope to serve two purposes. First, it is a mood booster for me that increases my level of happiness. Just as having a large bank account gives us a sense of security, having a large account of good times will increase the sense of happiness.

Secondly, someone said that the average kid laughs 300 times a day, for the average adult it is about five times. I hope to spread my good mood by sharing it with the public. If a random Internet surfer lands on my blog and reads about my funny story, I hope to remind him about his or her good times. It acts as a boost of happiness for the public.

Every sad, happy, special, and interesting memory is like a dot in our lives, and by writing and connecting them, then sharing with the public, we enlarge our lives – we leave a legacy to our families and friends.

P.S. My friends are running buy 2, and get 1 for free special. 

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