Two good things happened this weekend. First, Michele and David had another baby -- a beautiful little boy named Gavin. Welcome, little monkey! Second, I experienced a nice bit of luck that was almost poetic.
Saturday night, Jason's company had its annual Christmas/New Year's party. Yes, I know, I know -- a little late, n'est ce pas? The party line is that they hold it late so as not to conflict with all of the myriad Christmas parties and family activities filling our schedules in December. Whatever. I think they just want a cheaper rate at the Honolulu Country Club, which, for a country club, is already a bit low rent, in my humble opinion.
Yes, I know, I know, I'm a snob.
Anyway. The big draw of the evening is a door prize competition. To win a prize, you had to guess its value, and whoever came closest without going over won. The nonsensical part was that each "price" included not only the cost of the item, but also an arbitrary additional value representing the cost of obtaining the item and transporting it to the country club, plus another arbitrary 5-10% increase or reduction of the total value. So it was kind of like the Hawaiian version of The Price is Right, i.e., similar to the game show, but without making any kind of logical sense.
I know, I know, I'm a haole bitch.
Anyway, there were 11 or 12 prizes altogether, and they were pretty sweet -- a bunch of LCD TVs (a 50 inch, a 40 inch, a 32 inch and a 20 inch), some vacation packages (including a trip for 2 to Las Vegas), and some other electronics, like a Wii, a PS3, and an 80-gig Classic iPod. Each couple received 10 bidding opportunities to be distributed among the various products however they wished. We put in guesses for the Vegas trip, an inter-island trip, the PS3, the 32-inch TV and the iPod.
When it came time to announce the winners, we had the correct guess on two of the items -- the Vegas trip and the iPod. Unfortunately, there was another person with the same winning bid for the Vegas trip, and the tie was settled by drawing one of the two names out of a bag, which we lost. But we got the iPod. Woohoo!
And here's why it's poetic. Back in July, for Jason's birthday I had his van outfitted with a new iPod compatible stereo and new speakers. The problem was, he was using an old iPod mini that wasn't compatible with the newer stereo, so I gave him my newer iPod and took his older one. Then a couple of months ago, his van was broken into and his wallet and (my) iPod were stolen. He was really bummed, so to make him feel better, I went out and bought him a new 80-gig Classic iPod and surprised him with it. He was chuffed. Meanwhile, I was still using the shitty old iPod mini, while secretly coveting his sleek black Classic with its video capability and general bitchin-ness. So on Saturday night, it was awesome to be rewarded by the iPod gods with a new Classic of my own. Sometimes what goes around really does come around.