Jessica O'Brien's Blog
Story Time: My Adventures with our 6th roommate... / Mar 5, 09:51 AM
(I wrote this story in my weekly reflection 2 weeks ago, and my city director Shawn, said I should put this on my blog… so here it is!)
SoJo had a lot of decorations from Christmas, and one that a teacher had was a mannequin Santa, who is life size, with a big, white, plastic beard and black boots on a wooden stand. The only thing missing was his legs, seriously. His waist rested on his shoes, and his hands are frozen in a handshake angle. Well, Ana was about to throw him away, but I said no, I wanted to take him home. Come on! The amount of pranks I could do with him in my house, is endless!!! Well, I was most excited Friday afternoon, for my walk down Kostner and my ride on the bus with my newfound friend. This is what happened:
(directly from my journal) When I was standing on 31st and Kostner, and had placed Santa next to me, and I rearranged him so he’d be facing traffic as we were waiting for the light to turn red. A silver car was stopped at the red light as well, with 2 girls who looked between 6-8 years old. They stared perplexed that Santa was legless & on their street corner in February. Then, as I walked down Kostner, I saw Miguel, a boy from my Division class, skateboarding. I was excited to see someone I knew while I proudly carried Santa down the street. As I walked by, saying hi to Miguel, I asked , ‘Hey Miguel, wanna teach Santa how to ollie?” He just laughed and said no. Then as I crossed the street, a man driving past a stop sign, actually rolled down his window, paused and yelled, “Hi Santa!” with a big grin on his face and a shimmery eye brown piercing. Then I sat Santa next to me on the bench at the bus stop, sitting side by side like old friends, as we carefully watched all the cars drive by and caught the double takes and confused smiles on drivers’ faces.
As I got on the bus, the driver, with his little furry CTA hat, shifted eyes from me, to Santa, and back to me. I asked with a smile “Does he need to pay to ride too?”. The driver just smiled, “No.” Adults were disappointing me on their lukewarm reactions, but the best was to come.
As I got off the bus and was walking to my house, an older man and a little boy, of 4 maybe, was walking towards me. The man just smiled, and to my surprise, the little boy, with a glazed over, amazed look on his face, looked up, not at me, but at Santa. As we crossed paths, the boy grasped Santa’s hand, and said hello to him! Then he just kept on walking. Then as I was just to my house, a man was on the other side of the street, staring, again at Santa instead of me (which was a nice change) and smiling and laughing, with his mouth wide open. I turned, and lifted Santa’s hand in a triumphant wave. The guy smiled even bigger and waved back. It was priceless. Santa Clause has been affectionately renamed as Bernie Clause. And I will be looking at thrift stores for a Hawaiian shirt for him to wear.
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wow Jessie. thats fantastic. i can’t wait to see him.. maybe i can stop by after city wide? :)
By Sarah / Mar 5, 11:05 AM / #
oh jessie. you are amazing. :-D
By lindsey / Mar 5, 02:49 PM / #
that’s awesome! i think you should try to bring him home on the train….THAT would get some interesting stories, i’m sure :D. isn’t it awesome how santa has such a happy effect on everyone?
By sara / Mar 9, 08:09 AM / #