The Invitation

image courtesy of citizenofthemonth.com

This sounds like a Seinfeld episode...I'm feeling it.

A few weeks ago, I had this notion that I'd have an open house to celebrate my time here. I'd invite all my peers and superiors from school and organize it right after school on a Friday: my last Friday. Why not? This way, they get to see how I live, where I live, and they get to see how much I appreciate being ... I don't know...their peer?

I hurried through an invite, gave it to my kids to translate into Korean and Voila Done! we had an invitation.

Clearly the vernacular of a high-schooler isn't exactly the type of language one wants to use when one delivers an invite to one's work mates, so I asked Beautiful Girl if she'd take a peek at it. After a few changes, she typed it up (in Korean, that's pretty vital), and I went to town copying and cutting the little invites out. Today I distributed them to every single teacher here. There are more than 80 of them.

When I talked to Beautiful Girl about this a few weeks back, she said it was a fine idea, but that hardly anyone would come. They would feel awkward (not as awkward as I've felt for the last 355 days, let me tell you) and that it's not customary for a superior to visit a subordinate's house. I expected that Beautiful Girl, Black Dress, the Burper, The Little Guy, My Korean Mum, and her friends would all be there, but that's it.

Think again, Johnny.

Those little slips of white paper may as well have been Wonka's Golden Tickets, the way they reacted. The "oohs" and "aahs" abounded, as did the hearty pats on the back and shaking of my hands. This doesn't bode well for the budget.

The piece de resistance? My principal called me and Mrs. Lim into his office. We haven't spoken since I gave my notice to the school about my leaving. I gulped. This could just be about the Golden Ticket...I mean invitation I left on his desk. Or it could be a lecture about leaving. Either way, I was a little freaked out.

Turns out it was a praise session. He told me how wonderful I was and I was oh-so-happy to hear it. After the abuse I took after taking time off for my back, I was eager to hear that they still thought I was an asset to the teaching team. Anyway, he's coming.

He laughed at me though (what else is new?) because he reminded me just how small my apartment is. I explained the definition of the open house, but he remained adamant: they would all be there and they would all stay the full three hours. And that's that. I joked that he might make it mandatory that everyone show up...then I realized that wasn't funny.

I ensured that Matt knew he had to be there. I told him it was karmic retribution: surely they would feel quite awkward on my turf. Call it payback for my 12 months of awkward living. I'm excited though...I'm sure it will be an interesting experiment to have all these humans looking at my little shoe box of a home.

Maybe I'll invite my man? It's Friday...Mrs. Lim is taking me out for Italian Dinner on the romantic lake. I'm starving, so this is perfect. After physio, it's off to Katie's for her second party in two weeks. Great day to be alive.

Have a good one.