How I Spent My Friday Night

I once wrote about how a an acquaintance of mine told me her theory on divorce. She had gone through one, I guess a few years before mine, and she felt like everyone who goes through a divorce has two years to be crazy afterwards... you can read the entry here. Well folks, I'm coming up on two years... 11/9/09 will be that anniversary and my two years will be up. I think, with the new job, and all that I'd been doing/dealing with, the whole crazy idea had softly fallen by the wayside. I mean, gee... I had managed to really get a grip on stuff - I had no time for crazy and I had, well, entered the realm of relative sanity, that is, until last night.

I work for a state agency, really though I work for the governor's office (yeah I know) - and each county has an office to run that agency, to address the specific needs of that county... and because this work is what it is, all counties are able to form nonprofit boards if they so choose. The board doesn't really govern the agency, it just provides funds for projects that fall outside of agency scope. Well a neighboring county, one that is part of the circuit I work in, has a nonprofit board (we are in the process of forming one in my county) and they had a big fundraiser/auction last night. It was downtown, held in a lovely little art gallery - an opportunity to dress up, eat a few little hor'dourves, drink a glass of wine, test out my communication skills. I took a friend of mine with me, a divorced compatriot.

I had no intentions of bidding on anything at this auction, really. I had looked at the website and so I knew what was being offered, but I had no interest... I was basically going to show some support for the program. They had a cash bar, so I had a glass of merlot. I ran into a girl who used to teach at the dance studio the first few years daughter took dance. This girl, this recently married woman, is the most absolulety beautiful girl ever - she looks like a Roman goddess, absolutley flawless. It was such a pleasant surprise to see her, and we chatted about her dance studio, her wedding, my daughter. We had another glass of wine. And then the live auction began.

I guess it might be a good idea to tell you what was being auctioned... I mean, it's not that big of a deal really... but the truth is, it was a bachelor auction. There were 20 men, single guys who generously offered themselves to raise money for kids - 20 single guys with different date packages. Most of the guys were in their 20's... cute fellas with lots of personality - but there were a few older guys... a law enforcement officer, a couple of lawyers, an engineer... and so, as I said, I had no intention whatsoever in participating in the least... until that second glass of wine. And I'm standing there with the Roman goddess and one of the lawyers comes out, she's encouraging me to bid, and for some reason I lift my paddle and when all is said and done I had bought a date - what the hell was I thinking?

It's funny - really. I have no idea what I did, why I did it... it was a complete break from reality... my last hoorah of crazy. Oh hell, least it's an opportunity to dress up, go to dinner, see a play, talk to an adult... we'll see how it goes... he may just run before the date ever happens anyway. I'll let ya know... :-)