What the... Why am I peeing blue?

My friend Cailin alluded to an experience I once had on her blog recently. This is one of the better pranks that I have had the fortune to be the target, so I guess I should share it here.

I attended school in Hawaii. My time there was split into three "periods." I went for two semesters before my mission, one semester after my mission, and then for four semesters after a break in Arizona. This prank happened during the second period in Hawaii.

My roommate at the time and I had made friends with several girls who lived in the Green House. The girls were awesome. For my birthday they found a pinata shaped like a fish and baked me a birthday cake. I was amazed at how considerate they were. Little did I know the birthday party was just the set-up.

A few weeks later they invited us over to their house for dinner. We had been a few times before, so didn't suspect anything unusual. During dinner they mentioned they had a special surprise for desert. You don't have to be around me long to realize that I have a very acute weakness for brownies. I was all too excited to find they had made a whole pan of brownies for us. Although there is no photographic evidence of this prank, truly a tragedy, let me try to paint a picture. We gathered in the kitchen to prepare the brownie-from-pan extraction procedure. Before sinking a knife into the chocolately goodness, I commented, "These look kinda metallic. Cool!" Hmm, you think that would be a sign for some people. Not me. I ate several large pieces of the laced brownies. I now realize that the girls were not just eating morsels because they were being girlish.

On the way home from the dinner / brownie surprise my roommate and I started having stomach cramps. We both commented on how a trip to the bathroom was clearly imminent. Still not connecting anything unusual to the brownies, we chalked it up to something from the dinner that was not sitting well. After a manly trip to the bathroom, the flushed colons provided enough relief to dispell any further suspicion, at least until the next morning.

Still groggy from an ordinary night of sleep, I made my way to the dorm bathrooms to take care of business. A moment into the ritual I noticed something that shocked me. My pee was navy blue. I found a picture of the effects of the prank on another blog:
(http://cre.ations.net/creation/body-mod---turn-your-pee-blue)

I could only wish my urine was the color in this picture! I had eaten so many brownies that my urine was a much more intense shade of blue. We're talking dark, dark blue. The initial shock of seeing something other than a more human color of urine leave my body lasted only for about 5 seconds. Fortunately I had heard my father tell stories about how he would prank his friends with urine dye in high school. After realizing what had happened I was actually enjoying the new color palate I had to paint the porcelain. My roommate later came to the room to ask if I had anything unusual happen earlier in the morning. I confirmed that we had both been punk'd.

I had eaten so much that it took about three days to clear my system. I can't remember how the first encounter with the girls post-blue-urine went down. I believe they timidly asked if we were feeling okay. I'm sure we tried to play off that we had no clue what they were talking about, but I probably bubbled over about how cool it was to pee blue for three days.

So, in case you are wondering, the secret ingredient was methylene blue. As it turns out the girls were considerate enough to call poison control prior to dosing us to ensure there would be no harmful side effects. After confirming with the operator there would be no major injuries or reactions, the operator inquired about what had happened. The girls responded by saying, "Oh nothing, we're just going to prank some of our friends." They noted enough of the operator's shocked reaction to relay to us before they hung up on her.

Where does one get methylene blue, you ask? Well, the girls found it as part of a fungicide fish dip at an aquarium shop. When I graduated I was given the remainder of the bottle as a present. Let me just say now, I've never been as good a prankster as my Hieatt ancestors have been. My retaliatory attempt at revenge was haphazard at best. I decided to mix some blue fungicide into a batch of enchiladas I had made. The problem with that is the filling is clearly blue, especially if you add the dye to the enchiladas directly after mixing the filling. Needless to say, the gig was up after the first bite, and the enchiladas were only a hit with the guys anxious to pee blue. (Nobody did.)

How did this experience become a topic of conversation on Cailin's blog? Good question. Turns out that while I was visiting the Temple's in Brooklyn over Labor Day weekend Iz found a bottle of methylene blue. He brought it back for me to add to my arsenal of mischief. Do I need to say that he was one of the ones eating the enchiladas?