Holiday Embrace, the recap

A decent number of years ago I was in [Key Club] in Illinois. One of the years (my junior year in HS) I served as Lt. Governor of my division and became pretty deeply involved in all things Key Club in the state and district. One of these things was Holiday Embrace. HE is dinner/formal put on by the I-I District of Circle K to benefit the spastic paralysis research foundation, one of very few charities that I’m not at all skeptical of. Well, I’ve been back every year since (with the exception of the year that everything north of I-80, O’hare included, was shut down due to a blizzard). Despite the fact that the number of familiar faces continues to dwindle, it’s always lots of fun.

This year I was a little concerned that there’d be few CK folks that I knew and I heard that Kecia was worried about not knowing enough KC people… so I decided to go, and drag her with me. The weather was really pretty nice, right up until we were getting ready to leave, when it went south in a hurry. The drive up was nasty, we help to stop a guy who went off into a ditch. Well, Kecia stayed in the car and watched, I wouldn’t have let her help if she had wanted to. We ended up getting up there a little late, Mapquest’s directions were HORRIBLE this year. We got there, changed into our formal-type-clothing, and made our entrance.

All those people Kecia was worried about not knowing? Yeah, you’d think she had known them all her life. Fit right in, had a good time. I saw lots of folks that I knew, the Ohio group was especially familiar and friendly. I chatted with decent number of folks from I-I, finding out that one is now the manager of a steak ‘n’ shake and has employees that almost swoon at the mention of my name… they were in KC my term as gov. I think they need their heads examined.

Kecia and I hit up Steak ‘n’ Shake afterwards with some of the Ohio folks. There were supposed to be lots more people, but they just weren’t cool enough, so they went home instead.

During the course of a four hour dance, I spent about 20 minutes dancing. An hour talking to Amanda about CKI business (doesn’t it just follow you everywhere?) and the rest of the time plotting with Kim about how to win a little bet that they had going on. The bet is a very interesting story, but to protect the guilty (of which I am one) I’m not going to really go into just how scandalous it was. We also had a lengthy discussion that resulted in the realization that You can’t help what you think, You can’t help what you feel, and you sure as hell can’t help what you’re interested in. Heh… I know that’s going to get a lot of mileage. It’s true though… try not to think something, I dare ya!

It was a great night, all things told, and I’m really glad I made it back from AL to go. Everyone should go next year!