Maid Appleton is probably the sweetest person you will ever meet. If you don't learn something about yourself by learning of her then you're just a bad apple. So read her story of how it all happened and follow the link at the bottom of the page for more information. Or if you want to view pics now, click on U.S. Travels or World Travels but don't blame us if the stories don't make sense because YOU elected not to read the story.
One day back in late 2000 (December 14 to be exact), Tom said he had something very important to discuss with me. I wasn't sure what it could be so I feared the worst. He pulled me aside and showed me six Minute Maid apple juice boxes and informed me the boxes expired the next day (12/15/00). "Three for you and three for me," he said matter of factly. Being a good friend I didn't want to say "no" so I simply replied, "apple juice really isn't my thing. But I will drink one."
Tom was dissatisfied with the answer and tried to convince me that I needed to drink the contents of three juice boxes. I removed the straw from a box, opened it, and pushed it through the hole on the top of the box. And like I had told Tom, I drank the contents of a juice box and got up to leave. Tom was shocked and reiterated that I had two boxes left to fulfill my quota of three. I also reiterated my position that I wasn't a big apple juice fan but had it been orange juice I would gladly have accepted the "call of duty". I left to attend to my daily duties.
The next morning Tom asked me about the status of the juice boxes. I explained to him that I still had not finished the contents of one of the boxes. Tom was disappointed that I hadn't completed the task of drinking the juice. I picked up the box, pointed to the expiration date of "12/15/00" and advised that I live and die by the expiration date. A conversation then began as to what the expiration date means: whether it's once midnight strikes, marking the beginning of 12/15/00, or once midnight strikes marking the end of 12/15/00. I proposed we call the 1-800 number on the box to find out from those in the know. Unfortunately the call wasn't placed and Tom left, but not before advising me I was probably still okay to finish the contents of the box during the course of the day.
Well I didn't "finish" the contents because I never intented on "starting". At some point during that day I placed the juice box in his inter-office black mailbox. Tom later picked it up and didn't say anything about it. A couple days later I found a manila envelope in my inter-office mailbox and opened it to find the juice box. Like Tom, I kept my silence and one day while hanging out in his office he had to slip out. While he was gone I quickly pulled some CDs forward and placed the juice box behind them. Not too long after he came back and fortunately didn't notice anything different. At least immediately.
Within a day or so he noticed the CDs weren't straight so he began to straighten them and found the juice box. I had no clue he had found the juice box until several more days had passed and while retrieving mail at my apartment I got a package from somewhere in Houston. The package was an envelope and not a box and it's contents easily could have been a juice box but I didn't recognize the return address (oddly enough no return name). I remembered passing the main street in the return address to meet Tom at his grandmother's house but was unsure. I had no choice but to open the envelope and sure enough it was the juice box. He had mailed it using his grandmother's address. Unfortunately now that it was opened I couldn't "refuse delivery" which would have sent the envelope right back to him (which I should have done).
At this point we developed some "rules" about the hiding/placement of the juice box as it seemed this to-ing and fro-ing wasn't going to stop. The rules were rather straightforward:
1. If asked, "do I have the juice box?" an honest reply had to be given.
2. The juice box had to be hidden somewhere associated with that person or their belongings (i.e. not in a tree outside work or their neighbor's house).
3. We couldn't request help from others in hiding or finding the juice box.
So now I had the juice box and didn't know what to do with it. I did know that everyday Tom went to the gym after work so one day I brought duct tape with me to work and 15 minutes or so before he left work I duct taped the juice box to his bumper and hoped it wouldn't fall off on the drive. Tom had no idea it was there and I hoped he wouldn't notice for at least a few days. Such was not the case. As Tom left the gym he half-noticed something on the bumper and went by to check it out. Sure enough it was the juice box.
A day or so passed and while at lunch Tom informed me I had the juice box. I asked for how long and then he recounted the gym episode and wondered why I hadn't found it for the past two days. I had no idea! After looking for awhile I found it in my floppy disk box. He later called to see if I had found it and I said "no" (which wasn't a violation of rules) and later went by his office. Again he had to slip out and so I hurriedly tossed the juice box in the back of his lower left-hand drawer. And one day while going through his files he stumbled across it.
Tom retaliated by opening up a Kleenex box and inserting the juice box in under the tissue and then taping it back up. Eventually I discovered the hidden juice box.
I then called Tom's wife and asked her if she would hide the juice box in Tom's sock drawer (remembering that he once said he has 30 pairs of socks that get washed about once a month). I figured if that were true it could be a good month before he found the juice box. Luckily, Amy agreed and so I gave her the juice box and was set. I informed Tom that he had the box and after a lot of searching and some clues he had no idea. He finally said that he and Amy were leaving on vacation to San Francisco and that he really
wanted the juice box before he left. With more clues from me and Amy, Tom found the box.
After returning from San Francisco Tom informed me that I could now attempt to find the juice box. After an in-depth search (with no luck) I looked at the phone on my desk and knew that although it was impossible for a juice box to be under the phone, under the phone was somehow the only place the juice box could be. So I picked up the phone, turned it over and found an envelope that read "To Collin". I opened it and found several pictures of the juice box in various places in the Bay Area of California. Shocked and excited I ran into Tom's office and showed him the pictures. He told me he was glad he found the juice box before leaving and then asked what I thought of Maid Appleton's adventures. "Who is Maid Appleton?" I inquired. He brought out the juice box and I applauded his choice of name as we continued talking about the juice box's, er, Maid Appleton's adventures. Before leaving he said, "you know, you travel a lot more than I do so it would be interesting to see where Maid Appleton goes next."
And with that Maid Appleton began to travel...sometimes in suitcases and laptop bags, mostly in coach but occasionally in first class. She has been
to many places but obviously hasn't been everywhere...as the following pages will indicate. And that's where you can help. Keep reading and soon it
will all be clear.