The Christmas holiday has come and gone. While I would have much rather been at home with family and old friends, my Christmas here was a pretty special experience. One of my roommates, Louis, decided to cook a ham for Christmas dinner so around 3pm we had a family dinner of ham, mashed taters and corn. TASTY. Following this the four of us ventured out of the house in the early evening to attend another dinner, this time at the home of a co-worker. The house was absolutely gorgeous and easily made its way into my relatively arbitrary “Top Ten Houses I've Ever Entered,” as it was a well-apportioned spread high in some pineapple fields, overlooking the beautiful West Maui coastline. I didn't take any pictures because I figured that would have looked amateur so you'll just have to take my word that this was a baller house. It's the kind of house you'd expect the VP of TS Restaurants (TS owns the restaurant that's on my paycheck..) to have, as we happened to be at the house of the VP of TS Restaurants. Small world, eh? Again, clearly, it's not what you know, but who.
How we ended up at this particular house, the Moon house, to be a bit more specific, is a somewhat long and silly story but to sum the Moon household consists of Papa Moon, Mama Moon, and Miss Moon. Miss Moon works at Hula, as well, “(As the TS Family tends to be, literally, the TS family..) and we've become somewhat social through various work-related circumstances. Also, one of our good friends from Hula is close friends with the family, and his dad actually rents a smaller house on this family's property.
At any rate we get invited to the Moon house to have the pleasure of dining with the Moons and some other of their close family friends. Jon and I bonded with one gentleman, the father of one of Miss Moon's best friends, as we talked about Maine and he shared a story of an acid trip he went on while on top of Cadillac Mountain. It sounded downright fantastic, but I digress.
The party totaled twelve and after dinner the wine continued to flow until seven twenty-somethings and the Moon parents remained. At this point we were all socializing outside so, for whatever reason, Mr. Moon tosses about twenty golf balls onto the lawn and a driver emerges. Don't threaten me with a good time, right?
It's safe to say everyone took their fair share of whacks over the next half hour or so and well over a hundred balls ended up piercing the darkness on their (mostly..) airborne rides into the pineapple fields. After a solid slice to kick things off I found my groove easily. I felt like holes 19-27 of a thirty six hole day, when I've had enough beers to finally loosen up and shake the rust off. Or like holes 8-13 of a scramble when the drink goes down at a much more rapid rate so I can find my swing sooner. But, in either case I tend to continue down a sudsy road even once I find my groove so my game steadily regresses from this optimal golfing state. God damn alcohol and it's negative effects. Luckily for me I didn't quite reach that stage Christmas night, so Mr. Moon was pretty impressed with my swing as I was the big hitter of the group. Mr. Moon has a hell of a consistent swing, so whether just the wine talking or not I've chosen to take his kind words as a compliment.
The Moon's were so warm, welcoming, and inviting that, while making me feel incredibly happy to be allowed entry into their Christmas traditions, as I took stock well into the evening of what I was a part of I became quite bummed because it reminded me so much of summer holiday gatherings on the Capone deck, chock full of good food and drink for virtually all comers. Though, in the spirit of Christmas this party didn't turn into the debaucherous train wreck that more than one of the Capone social gatherings have turned into over the years. Ah, memories..
More or less, selflessness and generosity are desirable traits whether you make $20K, $200K, or $2000K. Spread the like.
Cheers.
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