Last night's dinner ... Palm Restaurant, a rather well-known DC landmark.

Dinner was hosted by a Group that specializes in buying and selling hospice organizations... at least, that's how they market themselves. If I had to guess based on my own observations last night, I would say that this particular Group specializes in old guys hitting on young women.

Scratch that. This particular Group specializes in CREEPY OLD GUYS WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER hitting on young women. *Shudder*

I was one of the targets... until the tall, busty, Texas girls got there. With my eyes at eye level, I was apparently no competition. Fine with me... I do enjoy my personal space, and NONE of the creepy old dudes were respectful of anyone's personal space.

Once dinner started, things did get better. We were at a table with a woman who runs a hospice in Tennessee, as well as her husband and granddaughter. The granddaughter appeared to be just a few years younger than me, but I didn't get the chance to talk to her much as we were seated directly across from each other. Even so, we had a pleasant dinner and everything was going smoothly until one of the creepy old guys came over to talk to the grandfather, as though they were old friends. I thought, "okay, so maybe not ALL of them are creepy..." but just then, I looked up and realized that the old dude was now leaning with his arm on the back of the granddaughter's chair... and she was leaning so far over to get away from him that I was afraid she was going to fall out of her chair!

I caught her eye, and realized that she was as annoyed with this invasion of personal space as I'd been earlier... unfortunately, I couldn't do anything but give her a look of sympathy. Finally, the old dude stood up and started to move on, and she straightened up in her chair, grateful to have her personal space back. Just then, he came back (I don't know if someone said something to him that caught his attention, or if he just thought of a reason to come back), placed his hand on the back of her chair, and LEANED IN AGAIN!!! I choked. Seriously. Just the look of utter exasperation on this girl's face made me laugh, which is not a good idea when you've just taken a drink of coffee (which I had). The good news is that the choking (to be fair, it was very minor, really more of a coughing fit) served to distract everyone and by the time I was breathing normally, the creepy old guy was gone.

Oh, it seems I've just been "summoned" to lunch... I'll write more later.

Happy Friday!