Pizza--Poor Decisions--Perfect Destiny

Before Syd became a well respected US Probation Officer, she was once an over the top 18 year old freshman at U Dub. Evidently she was in a sorority (I don't know the name of the sorority because she was kicked out in her first semester). The incident involved a Friday night, pizza, and an ill formed plan involving beer--It is one of my favorite stories. Somewhere out there is a former pizza delivery guy who was traumatized and lived to tell his side of the story.

The story really is not complicated. Syd and her sorority sisters had been drinking and had no money for pizza. Their collective brilliance hatched a plan with one fatal flaw. They ordered a pizza and when it arrived, Syd was supposed to jump off of a wall and knock the pizza to the ground where her waiting accomplices would scoop up the pizza and shut the door.

Syd executed her part flawlessly but the pizza guy did not drop the pizza. He spun around many times while Syd encouraged him to drop the pizza. He continued to not drop the pizza. Instead, he whirled until Syd and the pizza were flung wide. The pizza landed upside down (of course).

The fact that the pizza landed cheese side down was not the only flaw in the plan. Perhaps you already detected the limitation in their scheme. The police arrived almost before the pizza was scarfed down. It turns out ordering a pie to your own residence is a sure fire way to pinpoint where you live.

Syd said they had a special meeting a week later. Moments before she was kicked out, Syd offered to resign. I don't know why this makes me laugh so hard. I think because she was incredibly responsible when I met her. The fact that a version of her that existed without planning, execution (oh and also morals) just makes me chuckle.

Later in life, I would overhear her counseling her clients (recently released from prison or on their way back to prison). She often understood why their choices were flawed. She was incredibly patient.

I also often think that if things had worked out at UW she would not have come to Hawaii. There is a lyric to a Darius Rucker song that goes: "I don't know how I got here, but I am sure glad that I did. And it's so crazy to think that one little thing could have changed all of it." It is crazy to think that this incident led her to UH. In fact, she moved in right next door to me.