Just before my husband came home for mid-tour leave, I went to a charity bull roast/silent auction fundraiser that a very old friend was organizing. I love silent auctions for charity - it is fun to spend money for a good cause, and there are frequently good deals to be found. They had all sorts of auctions - silent, live, and the raffle kind where you buy a ticket and drop it in a box/bucket/bag for the item that you want and one ticket is drawn out.
We hung out until the very end when they drew the ticket raffle items because I was hoping to get this snazzy Under Armour outfit. There weren't very many people left at this point. One of the items was from a company called Slumber Parties. If you haven't heard of them, (I hadn't), they sell lingerie and other, um, personal items. The person with the winning ticket had already gone, and so had everyone else who had put their ticket in the bag. My kids were so interested - what was in the bag called Slumber Parties? My Mom radar sensed danger and I unsuccessfully tried to sneak them out while the MC person (that I've known since I was 2) went on and on, trying to find a winner. Finally, he dumped all the losing tickets from all the other raffles into the bag and started drawing. I crossed my fingers and hoped that I didn't win.
Well, I got my wish. The lucky ticket was drawn and it was held by the widowed mother of my friend who was organizing the event. She laughed as she picked up her package. When I went over to say a quick goodbye, she asked, "When is your husband coming home?"
"Thursday," I replied.
"Oh, good. You can use this," she said as she thrust the package in my arms. My girls were ecstatic - we were taking home a slumber party! Despite my best efforts at diversion, this was the hot topic of the car ride home. I was so flustered that I'm not even sure how I distracted them - I'm guessing it involved sugar. It has been a few months and they've stopped asking, thank goodness.
Who would have thought that my quest for a new sweatsuit was going to have such a different result?
