Are you sure, Sir?

Last Thursday Jay was standing in line to enter the chow hall for breakfast, quietly minding his own business, when Lt. Intimidating came out and started yelling at everyone, "Get in one line!!! Get your nasty hands out of your pockets! I don't want to see any hands in pockets! No training table* today!"

No training table?! Jay was about to get excited, but then he remembered there never is a training table line for breakfast. Instead, they are on the honor system to chose training-table-approved food. You know, stuff like oatmeal or cheerios, all the while passing up the biscuits and gravy, sausage, bacon, and waffles that the other cadets get to eat.

However, there was something different about this breakfast, and the fact that Lt. Intimidating was wearing a suit and not his uniform should have tipped Jay off. But even if that didn't, the next thing Jay saw did. It was the CHP Commissioner, standing in the doorway to the chow hall, shaking every cadet's hand as they entered. When it was Jay's turn he shook the Commissioner's hand and said, "Merry Christmas, Commissioner." The Commissioner returned the greeting and then kindly asked, "How are you doing?" Jay responded with the standard cadet response, "OUTSTANDING, Sir!" (Mind, that's the response you're supposed to give even if you're puking your guts out during the middle of PT... not that that's happened to Jay or anything....)

There were a few more big-wigs there and when Jay got up to the counter, he saw one of the Assistant Commissioners actually serving the breakfast. The Asst Comm started to put two pancakes on Jay's plate when Jay interrupted him:

"Sir, I'm on the training table."

The Asst Comm responded, "Oh really? Ok, well then, here you go," and he proceeded to give Jay four pancakes and some sausage. "And there is butter and syrup over there."

"Are you sure, Sir?"

"Yep, I'm sure. Merry Christmas."

Jay was in a minor state of shock. He cautiously made his way to his table, wondering what the deal was. Had the Academy staff gone crazy? Was he still in fact sleeping under his Academy issued oh-so-cozy 1940's wool blanket? He sat down with three other cadets and looked around again. He didn't dare take a bite, just in case Sgt G all of a sudden popped out from behind the soda machine and started screaming at him.

"Do you guys think this is some sort of trick?" Jay asked the other cadets, only half-way joking. Luckily one of the other cadets was a retread (someone who has gone through part of the Academy before), and he told them all that this was the Commissioner's Breakfast, which is done every year around Christmas. With that knowledge, Jay happily dug into his non-training table breakfast. It was definitely a highlight of his week.


(*for more info on the training table, see my post titled Government Broccoli )