Switcheroo

As you all know, Friday was the Jaycees Christmas party, and it was a great time!! My food was excellent and the company was even better. Kudos to Dawn for putting it all together - it seemed to be a perfect evening!

Funny story - I was sitting at a table with Jason, Victor, Keri and Jeff. Keri started playing the 'switch the nametag' game, so I had her nametag on and she had mine on. Anyway, after multiple times switching, I had Jeff's nametag on. Well Victor must not have known what was going on, because he looked at me, then started talking to Keri, saying "Ya know, it's just weird to see him with that nametag on. I don't know him as Jeff, he's Tucker!" He really thought my first name was Jeff!! We all laughed and he was embarrassed (hopefully not too much though). As little as I use my first name, I'm sure he's not the only one who doesn't know it.

The white elephant was obviously the best best part of the night - I drew #19 out of 37, so I was right in the middle. Here's a synopsis of how the exchange went (it might be a little lengthy, but it's worth posting I think...)

Shane drew #1 and he opened a bottle of rum, adorned with a slingshot monkey. Being a non drinker, I could have cared less about the rum, but I had to have the monkey. I set my sights on getting him. Mary really wanted the monkey too, so I knew I had some competition, but I wasn't going to back down!!

#2-17 were pretty uneventful. Not many gifts were stolen, and most of the gifts that were opened were alcohol, however Matt Ryan opened up some frog slippers/foot massager that sort of caught my eye.

#18 was where the gift exchange really began. Gifts were stolen and restolen and by the end of that pick, wouldn't you know that Kriss stole the monkey for the third time, and thus making him off limits. I was devastated!! I'm sure Mary was too, but there was nothing either of us could do.

#19 came along, which was my pick. I had my heart set on the monkey, but I sadly settled on stealing the frog massager from Matt. That actually turned out to be a pretty good decision in the long run.

Somewhere in the low 20's, somebody opened up a little Jesus figurine (he came with something else - maybe alcohol - i don't remember). Shortly after that gift was opened, Rhonda (Matt's lady) stole my frogs back (for Matt, I'm sure) , so I was ready to open a new gift. But Kriss really wanted that Jesus, so she struck a deal with me - if I stole the Jesus, she'd trade the monkey for it!! Woohoo!! I quickly made the deal, and I had the monkey and nobody could take it from me!!

Well, somewhere in the late 20's, somebody opened up Humphrey the Humping Dog. It's this stuffed dog that wraps around whatever you want and when you push a button, he starts going to town, making moans and groans while he's dry humping whatever he's attached to. All of a sudden, the monkey didn't seem as interesting. Humphrey was cool! Too bad I was out of the running for him...

...or was I? Later on in the night, Lori had the 'Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader' game, but J.O. stole it from her, and there's a rule that says you can't directly steal back something that was stolen from you. Lori decided on stealing Humphrey for the 3rd and final time. Well, Mary's turn finally came, and she was still eyeing my monkey (hee hee hee). I told her that if she could get Humphrey for me, I'd trade her the monkey for him. But Lori had Humphrey and he was off limits. But Mary came up with the master plan. She struck a deal with Lori, so she stole the '5th Grader' game from J.O., traded it to Lori for Humphrey, and I traded the monkey to Mary and wound up with Humphrey! I ended up getting exactly what I wanted (and so did Mary, Kriss and Lori - it couldn't have worked out any better). That was the first 3-way switch in Jaycees white elephant history so I'm told! It's always good to be a part of making history!

And the story even gets better. I came into work this morning and was telling my story to Mike, my cubemate. After listening to the whole thing, he said that he has multiple slingshot monkeys at home and would give me one. I offered to buy it, but he wouldn't take any cash. He even let me choose what color cape I wanted on my monkey (part of me wonders what he's doing with a houseful of these monkeys, but hey, i'm not asking - especially if he's offering me one!)

How lucky am I? I'm thinking Humphrey, the monkey and I will have to celebrate!! (hee hee hee)