The Party

The party went fairly well last night. I interacted well with everyone. I did meet a couple of nice single women, a stockbroker and a business owner but they were really to young for me. I did have the underlying feeling that I would have had a lot more fun at the party if I had been with a spouse or a girl friend. I could tell the class has really helped because I was really comfortable introducing myself and going toward people standing on the sidelines to include them.

Dave, the guest of honor, and his wife had a great backyard to have the party. Complete with bar and bartender. Since I don't drink I was an easy customer for the bartender, soda water. There was no tip jar because everything was taken care of the Dave & G. They also catered the party and had some really great food. The gift that Dave's wife gave him for turning 50? A brand new Harley. Wow. Most wives would never give a husband a gift like that, instead being afraid that he would get hurt. The bike is big enough that there is room on the back for G. I just thought it was an unusual gift.

One really sweet and lovely thing happened at the party. I ran into a former client, Kevin & his wife. I haven't seen them since I sold my business. He owns an auto body shop and races cars. She works for the State of Washington. About three years ago he had to put his auto racing career on hold when he was diagnosed with cancer. He told me last night, that three weeks ago they officially told him that he was in remission! For me that was the absolutely best news of the night and made the party even more fun for me.

There was kind of a minor tense situation that involved a former client. A former client from about ten years ago. An exotic dancer. She was referred to me by an attorney that was helping her with both a divorce and a personal injury lawsuit against her employer. However, it really wasn't an employee-employer situation because bars don't pay the dancers, the dancers pay the bars for the opportunity to dance. Then the dancers gave the bars thirty dollars a night for "floor rental." The dancers make all their money from tips. They make pretty good money, then it was about a hundred dollars a night. It is real common for dancers not to file tax returns. However, when they are involved in lawsuits they will always get a question, "have you filed your income taxes?," and if the answer is no it usually results in the loss of the lawsuit. The attorney hired me to file her tax returns for several back years so the answer to that question was yes. We won the lawsuit which included money for education for her. Portland is sometimes a small city and she was at the party last night with her new husband. She recognized me and I could tell she was worried that I would "out" her, which of course I would never do. I mean her husband was treating her with a tremendous amount of respect and she was obviously enjoying being loved, why in the world would anyone want to interfere with two people so much in love? Other than introducing myself to her and her husband in the fashion that I didn't have a clue who she was I pretty much avoided her. She said she was a neighbor of Dave. So she is now living in a ritzy area with a man that loves her. I didn't really know how to handle the situation, after introducing myself I pretty much avoided her. She pretty much clung to her husband, she was never alone enough for me to put her mind at ease that her secret was safe. What would you have done?

It was an interesting night. Hope this is a great day for you!