The Lad Pad

"Lad" being the British version of calling someone a boss and "Pad" being the British version of a room (Roger's British, so we try to blend him in with the rest of us), we have thus dubbed the room where we play cards one night every week. (Shout out to the illustrious Rosy McLean of Belfast for the actual naming of the room.) We aren't just playing any game of cards, we are playing euchre. It's a fast-paced version of games like Hearts, Spades, or Rook. There's something about trump cards and winning hands and getting points. This isn't even the best part though. Every week, we have a different theme, and we all dress for it. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Let me take you on a visual journey through the Lad Pad. Close your eyes. Wait... Keep them open, read my description, then close them and think about it for a second. Yeah, that should work. Also, know that this room is he brainchild of Eldon, an older missionary from the DC area working as facilities manager at a school run by the Anglican church. He and Roger put the whole thing together.  It's a small atrium room that has two bedrooms and a bathroom off of it, which together consist of the back house in the compound. Two of the walls are a deep forest green. One of them is covered by stained plywood paneling. The last wall is split firewood surrounding a window with forest green curtains. Eldon even got a flashing neon "Welcome!" sign. Basically, imagine the most manly man cave you possibly could, and that's the Lad Pad. There are two rehabbed old tables and small, wood shelves hold empty bottles turned candle holders and a book entitled "Teach Yourself to Play Cards." When I first walked into it, I could just hear the song "A Woman's Touch" from the movie Calamity Jane running through my head. The ladies' contribution is four page-sized drawings of king card with Eldon as the king of each suit. Yep, it's perfect now.

This is how the whole dressing for a theme thing happened:

This is how Jesse and Roger showed up at the inaugural night of the Lad Pad. Yes, they are doing their best Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd from that SNL skit of the Czechoslovakian brothers, and, yes, it was amazing.

They picked the next theme: 20s moonshiners in the boonies (based on the movie Lawless, which I haven't seen). Their outfits were amazing. They had brewed their own ginger beer to really hit the "moonshiners" concept home. They had even cut each other's hair to get the perfect 20s style (don't worry, us women folk fixed 'em up later). The ladies donned denim shirts and long skirts, and one of us even had the boots to tie it all together. It was a beautiful thing.

Cam and Roger have already changed, but you get the gist.

The next week was Gatsby. We figured we'd let them get one more week's use out of the hair. One of the missionary teens helped me sew a dress. A black box of a thing to which we attached strips of red lace (which was manufactured in New Jersey... America!). I was Thoroughly Modern Millie, if just for a moment.

We all planned to be serious, but Ellie just couldn't help herself.

This is serious business.

This week is Fresh Prince. I am too hyped. I need to get in touch with my 90s Will Smith side.