cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Strangely Exceptional Assortment of Friends There are 2 Richard Hawley B sides that I got off of iTunes and cannot stop listening to. Both covers. 'The Long Black Veil' and 'Lonesome Town.' Which reminds me. Ricky Nelson was just fucking awesome. Listen again for the first time. I have a bunch of old Ricky Nelson LPs that I picked up for something like fifty cents a piece in the bargain used bin at some record shop a few years ago and it's all fucking fabulous. I traded my Remington 700 SPS in for the stainless model of my dreams last Saturday. Did I already write about that? Just in case, I'll shut up about it now. The kitchen project is almost done. The floor is finished and the cabinets are hung. The painting is maybe two thirds finished. The whole thing might be done when I get home. Somehow I seem to be suddenly presented with a great many social opportunities of late. All sorts of people have been contacting me out of nowhere and asking me to do various things. A city councilor who I've always gotten along with emailed me out of the blue yesterday and asked me to drop by his house this week after work to sample his home made cider and check out his home brewery set-up. He also wants me to help make the beer for the big annual party fund-raiser. I've been hearing more from that film maker, who wants to get together again when he gets back from his National Geographic assignment in India. Then there's that blacksmith I've been shooting clays with. I wish my house were the sort of place where I was into the idea of throwing parties in it. Because I'm thinking about my assortment of friends that would be delightful to have all in one place just to see what happened. Most of those whom I would invite are remarkable characters in one sense or another. Politicians, novelists, former CIA employees, carpenters, big game hunters, a former head of the world bank, a photographer from National Geographic, a blacksmith, all sorts of musicians. That is one area that I think I have really excelled at in life. I have the most remarkable assortment of friends. On paper, I should be a very dull person with a very dull life. Unremarkable job, ordinary circumstances of birth and upbringing, not much money to spare. And yet I have managed in the course of my life to count some really exceptional people among my friends. I periodically dine with a former VP of General Motors. I'm on a first-name basis with the CEOs of several fortune 500 companies. Senators send me kind notes out of the blue. I have a number of friends who have been nominated for Grammy awards (one who actually got one). A washed up Hollywood starlet has a crush on me (don't ask). It really doesn't make any sense. I am an utterly ordinary person with no special talents or amazing accomplishments. I chalk it up to one important thing that I had the good fortune to figure out very early in life: that it is just as easy to make friends with people of consequence as it is with those of no consequence. When I am at a political event or a business function, I make it my habit to identify the most important, interesting or influential people in the room and engage them in conversation. I will sit down right beside them at dinner and I always act as though they and I are absolute equals. It doesn't really matter who they are. CEO, Senator, movie star, whatever. I have completely convinced myself that I am in fact just as good as they are and more importantly I act under the assumption that they automatically accept this as a matter of course as well. And you know what? It works. It works every single time. Maybe pheromones have something to do with it as well? I don't know. But when I am 'on' I am apparently terribly charming and this has led to my friendship with all manner of fascinating people. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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