~~~some assembly required~~~

*some assembly required

Santa Saga Part One
assembled @ 11:43 p.m. on 2001-12-16

I should be going to bed right now, as I don't want to get into the habit, again, of staying up until 1 or 2 am. But I just realized that I had not yet written about Pearl's first Breakfast with Santa, and each day that passes makes the memory a bit fuzzier. So here I am at 11:45 pm.

Friday night was fun. That was the batallion Christmas party. We arrived a tad early, and as Hero and I were standing there with Pearl, a very congenial and neighborly lady came up to us and introduced herself as B1, and her husband as B2. They were watching Pearl and thought she was just so cute that they wanted to meet her. Well, of course I called them by their first names, since that was how they had introduced themselves, and I didn't know their last names anyway. I introduced myself and my family, and we chatted about babies for a few minutes. I knew that I had seen B2 before, and thought that he was a fairly important man on the base, but I didn't know for sure and so didn't worry about it. If they wanted to be on a first name basis with us, that was fine by me. As they walked away, Hero leaned down and whispered to me "That was the head of the whole battalion you were talking to, the Colonel." Oh! Well, glad I didn't make any smart-assed remarks about military bureaucracy then, eh? Hero said it was fine if I called him B2, but he (Hero) would always call the man "Sir".

Many of the family guys from Hero's shop were there, including the sergeant and his wife, and their son that I hadn't met yet, Daniel. He was very cute, and seemed so serious and quiet to me. But that was compared to Pearl, who is always smiling and giggly-wiggly. Also there was a PFC who is relatively new to the shop, with his wife and their two-year-old son, Brandon. The PFC's wife (let's call her Blondie, like Blondie and Dagwood), is very sweet, and nice and funny, and we hit it off well. By the end of the night, when Hero and I had won nothing in the Raffle of a Hundred Presents they have every year, she was listening for our numbers along with me, and just as disappointed when we didn't get anything. Technically, we didn't get anything. But I'll get into that later. Casanova was also there, and sat with us. Pearl took an instant liking to him, and lunged for his lap. He graciously scooped her up whereupon she climbed all over him and gave him "kisses". Pearl's kisses consist of opening her mouth and just placing it on one's cheek/mouth/chin/neck/nose/eye, drool and all, and squeezing, with her little fists, any bit of skin that happens to be near them. Casanova took it all very well, and I told him that if we ever needed a babysitter, I would be calling him. He's Red Cross certified in infant CPR, too!

When I said earlier that I "technically" didn't win anything, here's what I meant. There was a guy there that Hero knew; I don't know his rank, so I'll just call him Chum. Anyhow, partway through the night, Chum says he's leaving and gives us his raffle tickets. Very nice. Later on, he still hadn't left, so he comes up to us and says that if we win anything with his tickets, to make sure he got it. We thought he was joking around but agreed. Then I heard one of my ticket numbers called, and for one of the big prizes, the VCR. I was so excited, and once I picked up the prize, I stood by Hero, admiring it and not believing my luck, when I realized that I had won with the ticket that Chum had given us. Though I had thought that he was kidding, I took it over to him anyway, and gave it to him. Of course I was half hoping that he wouldn't take it, but it was technically his ticket. Here's what bugs me, though. Instead of being gracious, or at least saying thank you, when I handed over the VCR and said "Here, this is yours," he said "Yeah, I already figured that out," in a bit of a smart ass tone. And that was it. I thought it was really rude, and told Hero so. Hero agreed, but said "That's just how he is." So I didn't take it personally, but it really sucked to get all excited that I won, then give the present up. It felt great to be honest, but sucked again to be treated so rudely. But, to complain anymore about it would spiral into an episode of Seinfeld and that would be the most annoying thing of all.

So now it's after midnight, I'm tired, and this entry is getting long. I will save the Santa saga for tomorrow, to do it justice (it was wonderful after all), and to seperate from my melodrama/sitcom script above.

--N

then || now