The shoes

Hi everyone,

A small lab story this time:

There is this thing among the PhD students in my lab to hide all kinds of stuff from someone when he or she has left the room. So, for example, whenever someone walks off during lunch to check the microwave or to get cutlery, someone else takes his or her apple/phone/watch or whatever he or she has left behind, and hides it. As there are not much places to hide things in the coffee room, it is most often just put underneath the table or on the seat of an empty chair. Is happens over and over again, even when someone has barely left the room for a minute. Most often it takes the victim at least 10 min to get it back, as everybody pretends not to have seen a thing. All students are involved, and sometimes it's even the professor who initiates the whole thing.

I am in for a joke, you know me. But these ones are so incredibly bad and (especially) predictable that I find it sometimes hard to join in. However, every once in a while it is quite funny. Last week we nicked a watch and as the victim did not notice it was gone at first, we used a reference to time in every sentence until he finally realized it was gone haha. Even funnier was that, after I put it on the empty chair next to me, someone had taken the seat and put the watch back on the table in plain sight. When the watch was finally noticed, he was about to grab it but then he realized he wasn't even sure it was his.. his face was hilarious.

I don't play along too often. I mean, considering the whole predictability thing. However, last week or so, I was in the lab late (very late) and I was once again the last one there. So, when I was back in the office, I decided to take the shoes of one of the girls (everybody changes into closed shoes for the lab after wearing flip flops due to the hot weather) and I put it in someone else's drawer. Done deal.

The following day I hadn't heard anything about it, nor saw the girl upset about her shoes or finding them back. So eventually I forgot about it. This week, I was sitting behind my computer and I heard two of the students talking about the mystery of "The Shoes" and how they still did not know who had done it. So, I turned around and joined in on the conversation. When the girl (not the one I nicked from) asked me semi-interested whether I knew anything about it, my amazing poker face gave me quickly away.. Both of them: definitely flabbergasted, hahahaha.. ! And thát's how these things are done people: swift and vicious!

At dinner later that night with the lab, the topic was addressed again and everybody wondered 'whodunnit'. Much speculation and eventually someone else was accused. It was only he professor who stared straight at me, accusing me of stealing them. I finally managed to keep my poker face but I could see in his eyes that he knew 'dondersgoed' that it was me.. I'm not surprised he made it to professor, one hella of a smart guy..!

Good night people <3