
On 8 Nov 08, Rene and I attended the Marine Corps 233rd Anniversary Ball. This was our first and it turned out to be more fun then we thought it would be. Of course Rene being Navy meant we were in the minority...two of his Navy Corpsman also attended, so we were not completely alone. To support Rene I wore a navy blue evening gown with a pale gold wrap - Navy colors! The evening did start out quite somber with traditional military ceremonies to honor fallen and missing Marines with accompanying multimedia presentations.
The guest speaker was a retired Marine Colonel. When he came around after to meet everyone Rene introduced me as retired AF...I told them not to hold it against me *smile*. The Colonel's wife laughed and said no problem - their son joined the AF...for one term. Why only one term I asked. Well...seems his first assignment was Cannon AFB, NM (if your not military look up Clovis, NM and see where that's located)...then they sent him to Korea from there. Guess he thought that he would never see "civilization" again and he chose not to reenlist!
The Ball was held at a medium-sized hotel in northwest Denver and was actually much nicer then we anticipated. It was highly encouraged that people stay overnight - did not want any drinking/driving incidents. Luckily the hotel accepted pets, so Chilli stayed up in the room. The food was fairly good for a hotel event too. After the formal part of the event a DJ played tunes and I have to say it was unique to see Marines in their dress uniforms dancing to songs like the Electric Slide, the B-52's Love Shack, etc.

Many people do not realize that the Navy enlisted dress uniform is the traditional blue "Cracker Jack". After a few alcoholic beverages, one Marine wanted his picture taken holding the back of Rene's blouse acting like it was a Superman cape and they were both flying through the air. The event finally started winding down around 1 am and we headed for our room.
We were deep into sleep on a wonderfully comfortable bed with down pillows when a horrible screeching sound jerked us from sleep at 2:30 am. I finally realized it was the fire alarm. My first reaction was to see if it had an off switch because this must be some kind of mistake! No off switch! Then I looked out the window - did not see anyone out in the parking lot from our side of the building - tried to call the front desk and got a busy signal. Finally decided this might be for real. Rene was still struggling to wake up, but we finally got dressed and leashed Chilli. When I opened the door the corridor was full of people headed for the stairs. When we arrived out in the parking lot their were hundreds of people all ready out there. Apparently several other people had the same idea I did about that off switch! Many people were concerned about how this was affecting Chilli - she got quite a bit of comfort! We saw several Ball attendees still in uniform/evening gown. Some had not yet been to bed - others who had not planned on staying the night changed their mind because they had more to drink then anticipated and had no change of clothing with them so it was either put back on their formal-wear or come out in their birthday suits wrapped in blankets! *smile* I can just see running into the Commander or the First Sergeant!!! Finally the Fire Trucks arrived, they checked out the building, never heard the "all clear", but when they took off we took that to mean we could go back in.
It was definitely a memorable night after that!