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| Slipper. |
That's kind of what AJ & I feel like right now. There is a military ball on July 15th and AJ was told the following, "You do not have to attend the ball voluntarily if you do not want to. But if you do not decide to attend the ball, you will be required to do duty for it, which includes setting up and taking down. Plus, you will still be required to wear your Class-A's for this purpose."
In other words, attend the ball as a guest or work it.
Now some of you may be asking, why wouldn't you want to attend? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the money. The Army recently came out with a new dress uniform, they went from dress greens to dress blues. AJ only has 10 months left in the Army and we did not want to have to spend $400+ on this new uniform if we did not have to. But now it's obvious he doesn't have a choice.* Next, the ball itself is 25$ per ticket to attend, which is 50$ for both AJ & I. I will also need to have a formal dress and all that comes with it, which will most likely cost over 100$. All said and done to attend this ball, we will be spending over 600$.
Second, military balls are usually drunken fests. Soldiers all up and down the ranking structure go and get completely plastered with each other. There is even a designated cocktail hour. AJ & I do not drink and really do not wish to be forced into a situation where one of the main activities is drinking and getting drunk. And lastly, it's a principle thing. If we do not want to go to the damn ball, we should not have to. As it is, we really do not have a choice. At least AJ doesn't and if he is going to spend all night there and be spending the money on the uniform anyway, we might as well go together.
So, we are going to our first military ball together. Although frustrated, we have decided to make the most of it and have the best time we can. This type of occurrence is not unusual and is just another reason AJ & I are looking forward to getting out of the military.
*AJ does get an annual clothing allowance for military uniforms but his clothing allowance is less than $600 a year. This clothing allowance is suppose to be for the following: PT uniforms, soldiers ACU's (army combat uniforms or their standard uniform), combat boots, reflective belts, patches/ribbons etc, and all other various parts of the military uniform. The money given annually is never enough, even without the requirement of a whole new $400 uniform.
