Rich guy

What a strange place, this city.

I thought I would be hanging out with Mark tonight having a few beers but apparently it wasn't meant to be.

He got called into work tonight and I decided I was going to go ahead with my plan: Drink a few Guinness.

So, I went to a bar on the Upper East Side called Doc Watson's because it's a friendly enough place, not a bad place for a girl to read the New York Times and do the puzzle without being bothered.

So there i sat doing the puzzle and trying to mind my own business when all of a sudden this guy sits down next to me. At first, I was guarded. I did my puzzle and didn't look up.

But after a while it became apparent that we were interested in the same basketball game on television, WVU v Providence. So, we started chatting sporadically.

As the conversation progressed, I mentioned my husband and he mentioned his wife, which is good. We quickly discovered we both knew the Bill Murray /Dalai Lama speech from Caddyshack and that we were both from Philly and that he had been to the Tijuana Yact Club, where I tended bar.

So, our conversation continued until we were talking about our childhoods and I talked about my father.

My father worked for the same company for some 35 years and was laid off when Tyco purchased it so that Dennis Kozlowsi could buy extremely expensive shower curtains.

So, I bought him a beer, commenting that he would get along well with my husband, who was also laid off by an evil company.

He has kids, lives in Chicago, wife was a stewardess. All interesting.

Then, as he prepares to leave, I introduce myself. He does the same.

"I'm Gerald."

"Well, i told you what i do. What do you do?"


"I'm president of the New York Stock Exchange," he says.

I laugh nervously and tell him it was a pleasure and that I hope he has a great weekend back in Chicago with his family.

"It was a pleasure talking to you," I say.

Then i wonder if he isn't the very guy I should be mad at. But he was so nice....hmmmmm.....