I love Christmas. Really, I do. But no matter how much I love it, somehow seeing the Christmas displays that department stores are putting out as early as October every year seems just a little excessive. This opinion, however, was not shared by the rest of my floor. As soon as Halloween had passed, it was made abundantly clear that Christmas spirit was alive and well on the 3rd floor of C-Side. Suddenly, Christmas music could be heard (emanating mostly from Chris Bill’s room) almost 24 hours a day, everything from Trans-Siberian Orchestra to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, as well as some very scary metal versions of christmas carols I never bothered to learn the names of. But it didn’t end with the music.
Chris Bill also decided that he was going to go all out with decorations this year. He literally rearranged all the furniture in his room, even going so far as to make his and his roommate’s two twin beds into a bunk bed, just to make room for a Christmas tree (fake, of course). He wrapped up empty cardboard boxes so it looked like there were presents under the tree, hung garlands decorated with candy canes everywhere, and made about 50 paper snowflakes to hang up on his window.
However, the most absurd thing about this holiday season occured at about 4:00 in the morning on a Saturday night while me and my friend Nate were up working on a project.
In my room, working, when I hear a knock on my door and Kevin pokes his head in.
“You up?” he asked needlessly, but I nodded anyway.
“Come and see this,” he said, gesturing for me to come out into the hallway.
“See what?” I asked.
“Just come and see,” he said.
Me and Nate both got up and followed him out into the hallway only to find...
“Why do you have a reindeer?” I said, incredulously.
Standing in the middle of the hallway was one of those light-up reindeer lawn ornaments. But where had it come from?
“We found it!” Kevin said proudly, gesturing to Robinson and himself, “On the side of the road.”
“You didn’t take it off someone’s lawn did you?” I asked, looking at it skeptically, “Because, that’s not up for grabs. Its supposed to be there.”
“No,” Kevin shook his head, “Well not exactly. It was at the end of someone’s driveway, laying by the curb. They were probably throwing it out because the lights on its head don’t work.”
He bent down and grabbed the plug, putting it into an outlet. The body lit up but the head didn’t, “See?”
“Yeah,” I said slowly, “So, uh, what are you going to do with it?”
“I don’t know,” Kevin said, looking thoughtful, “I thought I’d keep him in my room. For Christmas.”
“Ah,” I nodded, “So what are you going to call him? Rudolph?”
“No!” Kevin said, looking aghast, “His name is Buddy!”
And that is how Buddy the Reindeer became the new member of our floor.
