In the Name of Free Yogurt!!

Once upon a time, a new frozen yogurt shop opened in the city of Provo. This frozen yogurt shop was one that competed and dominated against all other frozen yogurt shops (in the renowned opinion of Jason and Emily). They visited the shop often and referred all of their friends. The location was great, the flavors were perfect, the toppings were outstanding, and the price was just right.

The night before the "official" Grand Opening finally arrived...the night that Emily and Jason had long awaited. The night promised great rewards if one endured to the end. The official decree stated:

If you are among the first one hundred customers when it opens at 10:00 AM Saturday morning, you receive a free year supply of frozen yogurt.

Jason knew just what to do. He arrived at 4:30 Friday afternoon and secured the #11 spot in line, which is great...however, that means he was in it for the long haul until Saturday morning.

Emily on the other hand, had a commitment at a Relief Society Retreat located at a cabin up by Sundance. She was amazed by the enormity of the cabin and the luxuriousness of the furniture. After a pleasant meal, an unexpected turn of events happened that blessed her luck. Her ride to and from the retreat began demonstrating signs of extreme food allergens. They had no choice but to leave the retreat immediately. As much as Emily hated to eat and run... :)... she had to do what was best for her traveling companion.

Emily rushed home, gathered as many blankets and pillows that she could, and joined Jason at the beloved EarthFruits Yogurt at 7:00 PM. What could have been a long grueling night for Jason, became a fun date/adventure for the both of them as they camped on the sidewalk outside of the shop.

They had hopes of watching Netflix on the laptop that they had brought, but the Wi-Fi was not cooperating. The nice lads who ran the shop allowed them to go inside and physically plug in to their network, which provided a good hour of LOST entertainment...but there was only so much they could handle with the hard seats and the loud commotion from the customers.

The first round of ticket call finally arrived. You were required to be present the whole evening (or at least when they did the random number calls) if you wanted to be awarded the grand prize. Any ticket/number that was not present for the call had their number put back into a drawing for those attending without tickets (Emily being one of them for her late appearance). Luckily there were some missing numbers, and Emily was later called and given a ticket. Things were looking better than the two had imagined. As long as they stuck it out for the night, they would both received a year supply of free yogurt!

As easy as it sounds, it came with its challenges. First there was the hard, HARD ground...the blankets only pretended to be padding. Then add the over one hundred people surrounding them...playing games and doing all kinds of "zoobie" things. Then add the busy street of cars passing by at all hours of the night. Then add the slight nip of cool breeze that was brought on by the month of September.

Given all of these elements, the night still would not have been so bad if it hadn't been for the tent positioned directly beside Jason and Emily. The tent was full of fifteen year old boys and girls who gave no respect to public decency. Emily and Jason heard more perverted comments and vulgarities than either of them had ever heard from high prepubescent voices. The F word was used as a filler word and they loved having everyone hear their obscenities at four o'clock in the morning.

As much as Jason tried to knock some sense into the fools, they only fed on the attention. The only thing to do became to ignore them completely (which was a hard task for the ever-rising temper of Emily).

The sun finally rose, the clock finally approached ten...they could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Event tents were being assembled for the grand day's events. Live music, face painting, animals, dancing...the list went on for the agenda for the day.

Then, the door finally opened.

Jason and Emily took their stacks of free yogurt cards (104 cards to be exact when you add the two together...two for each week of the year). They used one of their cards and filled up a bowl of yogurt...and needless to say, they were out the door as quickly as they had entered without a second glance at the festivities.

They had put in their time at EarthFruits Yogurt. (17.5 hours to be exact).

(Sadly we have no pictures to document the experience)