Not one of my proudest moments

Last night, I went to an "Industry Night" banquet sponsored by the local chapter of NAWIC. NAWIC stands for National Association of Women in Construction, when in reality it should stand for A Bunch of Kickass Women Who Aren't Skeered of Shit. I'm not a member, but I enjoy popping in about once or twice a year as a guest just to catch up with some old friends, glare at some old enemies, and score some free drinks. Hey, I've got my priorities!

My friend April was giving a speech about a program she had done in one of the elementary schools and asked me if I would come and support her. I love April, mostly because she is one of the sweetest people ever but give her a few drinks and she is off the hook. So anyway, the whole jist of the night was that it was celebrating the programs that NAWIC does in the schools to grow interest in construction and engineering, and they handed out some awards and scholarships to kids from local schools. The kids were pretty funny in that some of them would get up there and give these great speeches, and then the others would get up there and mumble a few words and then slink off to the side of the podium. They were hilarious.

There were about ten people from my company there, and fortunately for us they split our group into two different tables for the dinner and the corporate stiffs were on the other side of the room while April, Jimbo, Mikey and I were at another table. We each got two drink tickets for the bar along with our nametags, so we sauntered up to the bar when we first got there only to discover that the drinks were about the size of extra-small Dixie cups. Obviously, that wasn't going to work. Not for this crew.

But what we did discover was that the kids who had been invited to the banquet got drink tickets. And obviously, they weren't going to be needing them. So Jimbo was promptly dispatched to procure more drink tickets from the kids. Yeah, I know. It's wrong, wrong on so many levels that I don't even know where to start. But we have our needs.

So when all was said and done, we each ended up stocking up on drinks before the bar closed and surrounded our plates with many, many drinks. Hey, they were small. Really.

April did a kickass job. I ran into my arch-nemesis who works for another company that I almost got into a fistfight with a few years ago because she wouldn't stop talking smack about my company. And I found out that one of my new coworkers is having an affair with a married man. That she brought with her as her "guest." It was an interesting night.

So there's my tip for the day. If you're going to one of those boring dinners with drink tickets, check out and see if you can swipe them from kids or people that don't show up. You could even turn it into a contest. Oh hell, who am I kidding - the alcohol is entertainment enough.