Over the past couple of months upon my return to Indiana, I have been working with Lynette a lot in her office. During the great amount of time spent in office, I have become more and more acquainted with her core staff. December, for college students, is a month of high stress. Projects due, papers to write, and finals to study for causing very little time for social events. So with that in mind, Lynette decided to save the Christmas party for the beginning of the next semester. We decided to do a "secret Santa" type of Christmas were everyone drew a name and they had to get something for that person. Usually there is a price stipulation enforced to keep things "equal". This was no where close to the case for this Christmas re-bash. Money was not to be an issue this time. Instead, you wee to think of money as being no barrier at all. We were instructed to get that person whatever we thought they would want as if money didn't exist.
Talk about opening up a world of possibilities. Basically, we could get them anything that was only limited by own creativeness and of course how well we know the person we drew. I struggled for about a day trying to come up with a gift for a person I didn't really know all that well. I think that hardest part was net telling Lynette the name of the person that I drew so that we could bounce ideas off of each other (don't worry, I held tight to my self-control). Once figured out what I was going to "buy", the next challenge was figuring out how I was going to present the gift.
I wasn't even close to being the most creative one in the ground. One of the staff members dress-up as her gift complete with board shorts and pictures of tropical paradises taped all over her body. (We all were laughing so hard that none of us even thought to whip out a camera. Very disappointing, I know). My gift this year was presented in an envelope labeled "Boss #2" and included my own private island off the coast of Greece and a private airplane to get me and whoever I choose to bring along to this gorgeous island. Oh if only this gift was real!
Talk about opening up a world of possibilities. Basically, we could get them anything that was only limited by own creativeness and of course how well we know the person we drew. I struggled for about a day trying to come up with a gift for a person I didn't really know all that well. I think that hardest part was net telling Lynette the name of the person that I drew so that we could bounce ideas off of each other (don't worry, I held tight to my self-control). Once figured out what I was going to "buy", the next challenge was figuring out how I was going to present the gift.
I wasn't even close to being the most creative one in the ground. One of the staff members dress-up as her gift complete with board shorts and pictures of tropical paradises taped all over her body. (We all were laughing so hard that none of us even thought to whip out a camera. Very disappointing, I know). My gift this year was presented in an envelope labeled "Boss #2" and included my own private island off the coast of Greece and a private airplane to get me and whoever I choose to bring along to this gorgeous island. Oh if only this gift was real!
This Christmas re-bash was also garnished with the English tradition of Christmas Crackers. If you don't know what a Christmas cracker is please let me enlighten you (can you feel a story coming on). Picture a cardboard tootsie roll shaped item that is hollow in the place where the tootsie roll would be. In the hollow part are usually three things: a paper crown, a joke, and some kind of trinket. Traditionally two people grab onto the cracker, each taking one end, and then pulling away from each other. This cause the cracker to make a "crack" or "Bang" sound and split apart revealing the items inside.
The Christmas crackers that I brought back for the re-bash had everything that I described except one thing. They made no sound. When I bought them in England, there were fulling intact ready to make their little popping sound. The problem came when I started going through airport security. I put the crackers on the belt to go through the x-ray. When it passed through and made it to the other side, on of the TSA people working asked who the bag belonged to. I claimed it and approached the lady to see what the problem was. My education of Christmas Crackers began.
"Do you mind if I look inside your bag?" She asked.
"Go right ahead," I wondering what the problem was while also reassuring myself that I was a completely innocent person.
"Oh," she said as she looked inside the bag. "I see the problem. Christmas Crackers as not allowed in the cabin of the aircraft. They aren't aloud in the belly of the plane either."
At this point it probably would have been easier for her to say that they aren't aloud on airplanes at all. Holding back my attitude I replied, "okay."
She continued, "The only way they are aloud on the plane is if you disarm the cracker." Then is hit me, the part of the Christmas cracker that makes the cracking sound would be considered to be part of the firework family. Something that is, of course, not aloud on planes.
Completely, unfamiliar with the anatomy of the Christmas cracker, I ask, "How would I go about doing that?"
"You have to go back to the beginning of the security check point, and take out all of the card board strips that are attached to the inside of the crackers."
Decision time. The factors:
Time. I am running slightly late as it is. I have a plane to catch. I would have to go through the growing security line again then open up the nicely sealed box and take out each cracker one by one all the way up to number 12.
Importance. Do I just throw them in the trash and explain the situation to the staff when I get back?
I am amazed how the mind can weigh things so quickly. I grabbed the bag and headed to the area that the TSA lady told me about and started disarming my Christmas crackers at an increasingly fast rate catching some sympathy from people walking by and cardboard cuts on my knuckles. When I finished, I headed back to the line. The lady that looks at identification got up as I approached. She pulled back one of those black, zippy straps and told me to walk this way. It didn't take me long to realize that this secret path caused me to totally bypass the line of people. Here I was again taking off my coat a putting things in my tray for round two.
Round two was beginning to look like round one when that blessed bag of mine with the Christmas Crackers in it got pull aside. Fortunately, my favorite Christmas cracker educator took the bag and I again joined her exclaiming as I approached that I was faithful disarming all 12 of the crackers. Fortunately, she checked a couple and went with her gut which was of course to believe and very honest person like me.
As I claimed the rest of my things and turned on my airport walk speed, I thought about how things could have been worse. The Christmas crackers could have been in my checked bag. I didn't have to think of any other reason. That one thought made what I just experienced totally and completely worth it!
The Christmas crackers that I brought back for the re-bash had everything that I described except one thing. They made no sound. When I bought them in England, there were fulling intact ready to make their little popping sound. The problem came when I started going through airport security. I put the crackers on the belt to go through the x-ray. When it passed through and made it to the other side, on of the TSA people working asked who the bag belonged to. I claimed it and approached the lady to see what the problem was. My education of Christmas Crackers began.
"Do you mind if I look inside your bag?" She asked.
"Go right ahead," I wondering what the problem was while also reassuring myself that I was a completely innocent person.
"Oh," she said as she looked inside the bag. "I see the problem. Christmas Crackers as not allowed in the cabin of the aircraft. They aren't aloud in the belly of the plane either."
At this point it probably would have been easier for her to say that they aren't aloud on airplanes at all. Holding back my attitude I replied, "okay."
She continued, "The only way they are aloud on the plane is if you disarm the cracker." Then is hit me, the part of the Christmas cracker that makes the cracking sound would be considered to be part of the firework family. Something that is, of course, not aloud on planes.
Completely, unfamiliar with the anatomy of the Christmas cracker, I ask, "How would I go about doing that?"
"You have to go back to the beginning of the security check point, and take out all of the card board strips that are attached to the inside of the crackers."
Decision time. The factors:
Time. I am running slightly late as it is. I have a plane to catch. I would have to go through the growing security line again then open up the nicely sealed box and take out each cracker one by one all the way up to number 12.
Importance. Do I just throw them in the trash and explain the situation to the staff when I get back?
I am amazed how the mind can weigh things so quickly. I grabbed the bag and headed to the area that the TSA lady told me about and started disarming my Christmas crackers at an increasingly fast rate catching some sympathy from people walking by and cardboard cuts on my knuckles. When I finished, I headed back to the line. The lady that looks at identification got up as I approached. She pulled back one of those black, zippy straps and told me to walk this way. It didn't take me long to realize that this secret path caused me to totally bypass the line of people. Here I was again taking off my coat a putting things in my tray for round two.
Round two was beginning to look like round one when that blessed bag of mine with the Christmas Crackers in it got pull aside. Fortunately, my favorite Christmas cracker educator took the bag and I again joined her exclaiming as I approached that I was faithful disarming all 12 of the crackers. Fortunately, she checked a couple and went with her gut which was of course to believe and very honest person like me.
As I claimed the rest of my things and turned on my airport walk speed, I thought about how things could have been worse. The Christmas crackers could have been in my checked bag. I didn't have to think of any other reason. That one thought made what I just experienced totally and completely worth it!
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