A MARINE Ball, to be exact!
Yes, my friends, it's that time of the year again. I can still think back and remember last year's Marine Ball here in Chengdu... time has flown, that's for sure!
Y'all ready for some pictures?
Matthew is a senior in high school this year. He went with us last year to the Marine Ball, and he decided to come to this one, as well. It was sweet... as we were all getting ready, James helped Matthew with his tie and I was more than a little verklempt. Had I allowed myself, I could have gotten even a little bit weepy... but being weepy would have messed up my eye makeup, and we can't have that, now can we?
James is awesome at tying all manner of ties (duh), and so my handsome guys turned out very handsome indeed in their Ball finery:
I'm glad the guys looked wonderful because I completely and totally screwed up my hair and I looked like a total moron the whole evening.
The gawdawful hair is why last year's Marine Ball pictures are the ones I chose to put on this year's Christmas cards AND the reason why this year's Marine Ball picture of me and James will NOT be replacing last year's on my blog and on Facebook. Sorry, but my hair looked better last year. Yes, I am that shallow.
And also - yes, I DID wear the same dress to the Marine Ball this year as last year. That's because: 1.) I'm cheap, and 2.) I hate shopping for ball gowns.
And just in case you were wondering, I *was* the only Consulate girl there wearing the same dress this year as last year. That's because the other ladies have style and are not skinflint cheap-os. And also: I *was* the only girl with a gawdawful hairstyle. The other ones went and had their hair did and were resplendent with classy upswept hairdos with glittery baubles or what have you.
Zachary did NOT attend the Ball. But his time is coming.
After posing for a picture with me, Zachary took some pictures of the three of us...
The good pictures of the evening end here. Which doesn't mean that I'm going to stop posting pictures, of course, but it DOES mean that all the rest of them suck. Because I took them and not Zachary.
I am so, SO embarrassed by this next picture - because it's so blurry - but I've decided to post it anyway so that you could see a general idea of what the venue looked like.
This year we were allowed to take home a special glass on the table as a keepsake.
And, of course, there were Marines and there was cake.
A good time was had by all!
The highlight of the evening had to have been watching ALL of James' coworkers rush to the dance floor in order to stomp around doing the "Gangnam Style" horsey dance all over the place when that song started playing. I'd never even seen that whole music video, so it was... HIGHLY entertaining, let me just say! State folks (including the bosses!) stomping/galloping around the dance floor - a la this:
Don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time. Later, one of the Consulate folks came over and desperately begged me to tell them that I had, indeed, gotten a picture or a video of a certain boss person galloping around doing the Gangnam Style horsey dance. ALAS, I had not. I was too busy laughing. FAIL, me.
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It will be very interesting to see where we are next year during Marine Ball season. Because a *fourth* round of DS summer bidder paneling has now come and gone... and we didn't get anything this round, either. So we shall see...