Jo's Cafe

If you have never been around the military, or in the military to ranks where you have to attend various functions after hours, let me tell you about tonight.

It was the quarterly battalion hail and farewell get together. This function is officer territory, but since hubby is in the command staff and the CSM, we had to go. Now don’t get me wrong, I wanted to go – even though I had to fly home from work, freshen up and fly back the other directions within 15 minutes.

The reason for this function is to “hail” the new people (ie: officers) into the battalion family and “farewell” those that are moving on.

I believe Hubby said that Alpha Company was in charge of the location – so I’m trying to find out who to shoot for sticking us in this dark, dank, loud-ass bar — but I digress. It was $12 a person — yup, had to pay for it. Hubby and I don’t drink outside of home often (21 years in the military is NOT going down the tubes for a DUI) and 99.9% of restaurants and bars out there do not carry diet Sprite or 7Up so I was stuck with water and hubby had sweet tea.

There we were in this back room with the tall bar tables and chairs. Really sucks when you’re only 5’3″ — never have liked bar stools EVER! There were beer pitchers on every table, but the waitress was nice enough to bring us a pitcher of tea and water. Thankfully it didn’t go to waste, as other officers were also choosing not to drink and drive and were glad to see we had them. There was a “buffet” of chicken wings, grilled veggies, chicken strips, ribs and a huge fruit tray. Sorry – not worth $12 a person in my book, but maybe that included the beer and other drinks.

After everyone ate and chatted each other up, the Colonel got up in front of the room, in front of the huge ass TV and tried to talk over all the other noise in the bar. Love this guy to death, but he was very hard to hear from all the noise.

He hailed several new officers, giving them all a battalion coin. They also give out a baby cup to the new parents with baby’s name, date of birth and weight. They are really nice.

He then moved on to the farewells. Each officer got the battalion colors framed with a small gold plague with his name, position and time in the battalion. The Colonel’s lovely wife gave each wife a small gift too and thanked her for all the help she provided.

He finally drug me and hubby up there because since the last hail and farewell is when my hubby got promoted and moved into the CSM position.

I believe there was a good time had by all, but as soon as the Colonel was done, 90% of the people left. We hung around for another hour or so, but since it’s an early morning tomorrow due to the Post Change of Command, we had to leave.

There was a good moment I missed, but was told about. Evidently someone in the other section of the bar thought our buffet was for everyone and just wandered his ass in, filled up his plate and moved away. The Colonel saw him and went after him, asking who he was. The bouncer came and got the plate and removed the guy. Some people! The Colonel use to be a bouncer in his younger days (he says), so he had some practice.

So — there it is. That was my night. This tops 3 nights of “wifely” stuff for me this week. I’m whipped, but I really did enjoy myself. I need to be making real friends, not internet friends, so it’s time I get out of the house and do something. This way I can, and I have something in common with these women. Now I just have to find the one that loves to shop as much as I do!