Today is totally the type of day that reminds me why I have my own business and love it. I awoke early in the AM and drove from Clearwater to St. Pete for my clients annual meeting. I wanted to catch the keynote speaker as he supposedly had a good comedy/motivational act. In face it wasn’t bad at all and I give the guy a B. Before and after the speaker, there was a drawing and I neglected to pick up my tickets thinking it would be cheesy gifts…wrong. Cash ($50+), iPods, and a Camcorder were the prizes…wow.

After the morning session I returned home to prepare for my big costume dinner. Now I knew the event was 60′s/70′s themed and I figured (correctly) that everyone else would be dressed as a hippy or disco person. I chose to go with a late 70′s, punk rock look…think the Sex Pistols. My sister Karen helped me apply five tattoos, I painted my toe and fingernails black, wore a fake nose and ear ring, had studded leather wrist bands and a dog collar, and the coup de gras….my leather pants and a sleeveless shirt. I think I looked punk rock (pictures coming soon) but I probably was very borderline gay club.

Long story short, I ended up winning the costume contest (and $100). It probably helped that 4 out of the 5 judges were women and I mad certain to show off my…ass-ets. =)

Afterwards I tried to stay off the dance floor (for fear of having my ass repeatedly grabbed) but was eventually dragged onto it by my 60+ year old client. Sure enough…it seemed like every intoxicated woman their claimed free shots on my ass…after three songs I had had enough and found a chair to protect myself.

Everything was going great, talking to people, enjoying food and drinks when something really shitty and really cool happened. Look…I’ll be honest…I hate fat people. Sorry if you are fat and this hurts your feelings…but people who let themselves get ridiculous out of shape bothers me. Anyways, this one overweight chick would not get away from me and at first I was very polite but as the night wore on and she became more intoxicated she became very annoying. I was seated talking to the son of the CEO of the client when this fat chick sits down and picks up my iPhone. Before I could ask her to put it down, a new song came, she says,”I’m going to dance!” and SLAMS my iPhone down on the table…I heard it crack.

Sure enough…I looked and a big crack. I…was…LIVID. There are very few times I lose it…and I was on that edge where something very, very, very bad was about to happen. It took every ounce of control for me to not go out to the dance floor and go off on her. This is where something cool happened. The guy I was talking to went and told his Mom what happened and my client came up to me and just said, “Bill us.” I told them it was not their fault and I wasn’t upset at them…but they insisted on reimbursing me full retail value for the phone. Wow. How cool is that?

So…the evening ended on a good note which became even better when the Celtics came back from the 20+ point deficit to beat the Lakers. All in all…a great day…wait until you see the pictures!