Social Event

Its not very often that I have the opportunity to attend fancy, dress up social events. I am, after all, a shift worker who manages a major international airport on a rotating basis. My supervisor coined the term "walking around managers" recently. So, when our department director invited me to the city's annual firefighters award banquet, I was a little tickled. It had been years since I've been to such an event; back in my general aviation days in fact when Julie and I attended a dinner for the Plant City Chamber of Commerce. Unfortunately, Julie was not able to attend this time.

Now, I'm pretty savvy enough to know that my last minute invite was a direct result of some body's wife not attending and considering the airport was table sponsor, nobody, including our executive director wanted to see an empty seat. And the seats were good to, front row table right next to the mayor and city police chief's table. My justification for going, other than to fill a chair, was my work in emergency response at the airport. I was the likely pick and our department director said it would be a good experience for me.

So, I dusted off the suit pants and the suit jacket and headed off to the city's premiere catholic church adjacent to the city's premiere catholic school to enjoy the city's premiere social event for the weekend. An event so prestigious it takes a local TV news anchor to be emcee.

I was joined at our table by an airport authority board member and his wife, our executive director and his wife, the airport fire chief and his wife, my department's senior director and director and the authority's executive secretary. We were the lucky table for the night. Our airport fire chief won the table center piece, he won a door prize for a car wash and his wife won dinner at the Olive Garden.

It was quite an event, complete with an honor guard, bagpipes, the pledge to the flag and a moving dedication to a fallen firefighter. It was an event to honor those who performed exceptionally well through the year complete with video journal of the firefighters work. Who knows if I'll ever go again, but it was certainly nice to have gone this time!