Get TogOEther

We spent last evening with Steve's colleagues and their spouses at a post-holiday gathering. It was the type of event that might annually fill a spouse with dread. We have all been victims of those office parties that require a nice cocktail dress and a few hours of meaningless small talk before we can fairly kick our date's shin discreetly under the table and indicate with desperate eyes that it is time to go. But get-togethers with Steve's company are not that kind of affair. They are fun - always fun - and over the seven or eight years we have been invited, they have become something we look forward to attending. They have become time spent with friends.

In all honesty, I see these friends three or four times each year. I don't call anyone daily to check-in. We rarely meet up outside of organized events, but when I see them, I usually end up laughing harder and longer then at any other point in the year - and believe me - my life is nothing if not one humorous event after another. With two pint-sized comedians in the house, I get my fair share of laughter. But there is something just great about these people. I have tried to analyze it a bit in the past and all I can come up with is the spirit of fun and adventure that I find in all of them coupled with a genuine interest in each other's lives. Every gathering is a chance to step out of my usual role and be a me that is just me. Of course we are all concerned about each other's families, interested in each other's daily lives, but overall, these little soirees are a chance to just have fun and leave the daily stuff behind.

And there has been a lot of fun over the years. Sprinting through the streets of Manhattan on a crazy scavenger hunt, cruising past the White House on Segways just moments after being handed the keys, learning to salsa in a Brazilian restaurant, descending by helicopter to the floor of the Grand Canyon for a champagne toast, singing Sweet Caroline at an outdoor karaoke bar on the Las Vegas strip, these are the moments that bind people together. You can learn a lot about a person while watching him rise to these occasions. I know things from who hates new foods, but will try most anything to who is most likely to have a glittery pair of platform shoes hidden under the bed... and they know a lot of random, crazy facts about me. And when you get right down to it, it's the random crazy facts that truly define us.

So, this is my new year's toast to the people that not only know I love Neil Diamond, but actually encourage me to sing his songs out loud... and will probably still welcome me back after they hear me sing.

The gOE - gOE Girls