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Our Master Plan: Asking Ryan and Sean to Social

In order to save Jill, Sean, Ryan and myself from telling this story one more time, I will document our adventure for your entertainment purposes.

It all started two weeks ago when Jill and I got the zany idea to ask Sean and Ryan to women's social by making a slideshow. Our plan was to lure them into the sanctuary at Mars Hill (they are both tech guys there) where we would show it on the projector screen, raise the screen, and we would be standing behind it. We sought the help of Robb (without whom we would have been completely inept and unable to pull this off) who graciously agreed to help us. He emailed their boss who was more than happy to collaborate and insisted that we could do better than a slide show. Robb then helped us make a video (attached to this post; also available at video.google.com) showing random pictures and video clips of Sean and Ryan with the text "I saw you..." and the Lifehouse song "You and Me."



So all was going as planned. Their boss called them to say they should be "on call" Saturday (so they wouldn't stray far from UCU) and faked being sick on the phone. Jill and I were pretty worried that something would go wrong (i.e. the church would be locked, the projector wouldn't work) so we worked on a lot of less-amazing backup plans.

Saturday. The big day had arrived. At 2pm Jill notices that Sean and Ryan's cars are both gone. We start getting nervous. Ryan come back from studying around 3pm. This is good news, but where is Sean? He is still AWOL. 3:45 pm: Our departure time had arrived. We stealthily avoided Ryan's prying questions about where we were going. "To study in U-Village of course." "Where in U-Village." "Barns and Nobel." "Barns and Nobel is packed!" "Thanks Ryan." We finally escape out the door. The indispensable Robb is hiding behind Jill's car. We all jump in and head to the church to get everything set up. Robb agrees to call Sean and find out where he is. Robb calls Sean. They get disconnected. Robb calls him again. The briefly discuss how Sean has bad service wherever he is. Sean wants to know where Robb is going. They get disconnected again. Robb calls back again to find out the tragic news that Sean is in Issaquah! Jill and I freak out. I called their boss to ask him to call Sean and tell him to go to UCU, get Ryan and head to Mars ASAP under the guise that the church was rewiring everything and now it wasn't working. We book it to Mars, praying that everything will still come together somehow. After many locked doors we are finally able to sneak in while someone is coming out. Much to our relief we were greeted by Dan and Seth, two of the tech guys there. Robb went off to help them and Jill and I hid behind the screen in anticipation of Ryan and Sean's arrival. Sarah J., our inside woman, then called to notify us that Ryan had just left without Sean. This was not the plan! Their boss then called saying, "Incase you haven't already figured it out, Sean's not coming." Dan then called Sean, telling him to get his lazy butt down to the church now. Thankfully Sean was now on route. Unfortunately 520 was closed for construction and all traffic was being diverted to I-90. The amazing tech guys and Robb were finally able to get our video to play on the two side projector screens. At least one thing is going right. Then Ryan arrived. Seth got stuck outside with the responsibility of stalling Ryan and keeping him out of the sanctuary. They talked about electrical cords, the internet, and some other EE stuff that is over my head. Seth finally abandons Ryan in the parking lot and leaves. Dan has plans that night too. He tells Robb how to start everything and leaves. Now it is just Robb, Jill and I. (Remember, Jill and I are still stilling behind the screen).

So.... it's 5 p.m. and Robb comes and talks with Holly and I (yes....Holly got tired of typing, so I'm finishing the story...hello all!) Robb, Holly and I put on our thinking caps of what to do with Ryan, out in the parking lot, because Sean is still stuck in Mercer Island traffic. We were wondering, "Does Robb tell Ryan that we are asking him to social, and just leave it a surprise for Sean? NO!!!!! We decided that Robb would tell Ryan that he has a surprise for both him and Sean in the sanctuary, but Ryan can't go in until Sean gets there. Praise be to God....Ryan believed it! So, unknown to Holly and I (still behind the screen) Robb and Ryan go to the coffee room and sit to chat...while we wait in suspense of what is going on. Somehow, Robb is able to leave Ryan and quickly comes to update us, that Sean is now moving in traffic, and Ryan is totally believing his story. Also, Ryan has now been sucked into our plan and will call Robb when Sean arrives, so that "Robb can be ready to show the surprise." Robb runs back to the coffee room and waits with Ryan, while Holly and I still are sitting behind the screen.
So, Holly and I in suspense, can hardly stand it any longer and resort to laying on our bellies and looking through the 5 inch gap between the floor and screen...just to watch to see who was coming. Finally! Robb runs into the sanctuary and whispers that Sean is just a couple of minutes away. Holly and I are super stoked and we watch (still on our bellies) waiting in anticipation for the arrival of Ryan and Sean.
Hallelujah! It's around 5:45 and Sean and Ryan walk in the back door. Robb is right on cue to start our movie, "We Can't Keep Our Eyes off of You." (There will now be a gap in this story, because Holly and I don't know the reactions of Sean and Ryan while they watched the movie.....) However, we later found out that a woman who was in the church building came and told Sean and Ryan to turn down the sound and that it was too loud.......well, she bugged Ryan so much that he missed the most important screen of all, "Will you go to social with us?" The movie ends, and the screen raises. Holly and I wave and we get 2 different reactions. First, Ryan said, "What are you guys doing here?" While, second, Sean is laughing so hard he is hiding his face in his hands and kind-of ducking below the chair in front of him. No one said anything for a good long 5 seconds, so I finally blurted out, "Will you go to social with us?" Sean said something like, "Yes! Of course we will" while Ryan goes, "Oh that's why they're here." So Ryan and Sean come up to the edge of the stage and we all just kind of stand around....then to clear the air (and confusion) I said, "Ok, I'm asking Sean, and Holly's asking Ryan"....then the guys were like, "ohhhhhhh!!!!" Then we really started to laugh and talk all about how we came up with the master plan of tricking them, to getting them to Mars Hill. Oh, but wait.....we can not forget our faithful assistant Robb, who is still hiding in the back sound proof room. I ran to get him, he comes out...and Sean just about craps his pants. Sean says, "What the heck are you doing here?!?" Everyone starts to laugh......and the rest is history!

Sean, Ryan, and Robb.....please feel free to add your versions of this story....we'd all like to know what you were thinking during this whole escapade! I hope you all enjoyed our story.....we had so much fun putting the plan together and executing it! We are lucky to go with guys like Ryan and Sean....and Robb and his girlfriend....we all can't wait for social night!