banquets

I'm headed to a banquet tonight. That is almost never a good thing. When I used to run banquets I hated them. When I'm asked to speak or somehow "perform" at them, then I feel the pressure of the person who is running them...and hate them. When I'm asked to attend, sit, eat, and possibly pony up some cash....then I just sit there and wonder, "why would they set up the room like this? Why would they have that person speak? What's the deal with this music? Didn't they say I'd get out of here by 8:30?" stuff like that...

I have some hope for tonight's banquet. Young Kevin is running this one and he's a sharp cookie. I'm banking on this one being solid. I know the main speaker. It'll be fun to see some of the folks that I haven't seen since we moved back to Ohio, and I have some fun people at my table.

This is actually a banquet at a place that I tried to move our banquet to for years...and couldn't make happen. Kevin made it happen. I also tried to get a golf tournament together for years...and Kevin made that happen also. All those years he was probably sitting back and thinking, "why would they have this here? Why don't they have a golf tournament? Why are they letting that guy run this thing?" And now he gets to make it all work. He's good...

The one thing I'd like to avoid is the hotel lobby where they're having this banquet. It's fairly nice, but they either still allow smoking, or the place just has that smell from 50+ years of smoking. I always feel like I'm walking through an ashtray when I first get there.

I guess it'll all be worth it once I bite into that chicken dinner.

If you're looking for a good use of your pre-tax charitable giving, I'd recommend YoungLife OH22

and if you're looking for a good time, I'd call Dave Wolfenberger - because he's fun to hang out with and can play a mean game of ping pong...