hot in the city tonight

Quite some time ago Auntie Yoli asked me if I wanted to go to a charity fashion show and without knowing what I was agreeing to, I said yes and promptly forgot about it. Well tonight was the night and I still didn't know what I had signed up for. Today at work I casually mentioned I was going out to a fashion show and the girls started to laugh. They, apparently, knew what I was getting myself into. You see this charity "fashion show" was Hot Night in the City. Basically we're talking hot local firefighters in various stages of undress. All evening long. Oh my.

Folks, this is so not my kind of thing and if I had known what I was saying yes to when Auntie Yoli asked me all those weeks ago, well I likely would have said no. That thing that happens to women at this kind of show, I'm talking the screaming, the yelling, the touching of total strangers is so the exact opposite of me. But I had agreed to go, so I was just going to have to soldier through.

When we arrived at the venue the place was packed with ladies. There was cleavage everywhere you turned. Tight tops and skinny jeans. Serious out on the town make up and copious amount of alcohol. Every age group was well represented. From the young to not so young. The place actually had a vibration that erupted into a screaming frenzy when those fire fighters hit the stage in only their skivvies. I think I was managing my anxiety okay, until they started jumping off the stage and wandering into the audience. My seat, three rows back, second seat in. Now if one of them had attempted to look at me, talk to me or, good Lord, dance with me I very likely would have died on the spot. Literally. Dropped dead. I thought to myself on more than once, what in the hell am I doing here? What was it that made me different from the rest of the women there? Why can't I just let go on my insecurities and scream at and gyrate with the half naked men? More importantly did I really want to be like them? I think likely not otherwise, by this stage in my life I'd just be like them already.

Despite all my social awkwardness, I'm not hard of seeing. There were some very good looking fire fighters there tonight. There was one guy who caught my eye because he reminded me of my secret boyfriend Peter Krause from Dirty Sexy Money (a show you should all be watching btw). Just before the intermission the local version of Peter Krause gets up on stage with a bouquet of roses for his girl friend. She just so happened to be sitting in the section next to ours a couple of rows back. She also happens to be an old friend I hadn't seen in a while. Seeing her was definitely the highlight of the evening up to that point. And it did throw a switch on the evening. I realized if I had gone with my gut and said no, I wouldn't have run into her. I don't know, in some weird way it made me relax a bit and I enjoyed the second half of the show a lot more than the first. The guys were having a good time with it. Some had moves, some didn't, but they made it work. At the beginning of the show I was promising myself I would never do it again. By the end I was thinking.. oh yes!

Next year. Girls night. Who's in?