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Most of my stories are largely based on real events that occurred in my misspent youth. Some of course are just fantasies, but even these usually have a seed of truth behind them, that sparked the fantasy. And of course I'm not a good enough writer to create people like these. Most are based on real people, or occasionally combinations of people. Of course the names have been change to protect the guilty.
The Serendipity series is different. These are my non-fiction stories, as accurate as possible, with just the slightest artistic license thrown in to make the stories flow. I've played with the idea for years, and over the last half-dozen years had a few worthy experiences, which I may go back and document.
Today however, I had a truly mind blowing time, and I sat down to record it, and share it with you, my readers. This was my day. I think you'll agree it was worth putting down on paper.
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I attended day two of the Learning Annex wealth expo today. Truth is most of it is just a pitch by VERY good presenters, who describe this incredible system for wealth, that only they know, and for a price, which they'll reveal at the end of each "workshop," they'll be willing to share it.
I really enjoy it because if you listen and pay attention, you can learn a lot. Then if you go out and do a little research on your own, you can do the same things they try to sell you, for a minimal cost on your own. I learned some good stuff about legal structure for asset protection in real-estate. I have several rental properties, and even though I KNOW what I SHOULD be doing, I still haven't set up everything in the legal form I should. One workshop alone gave me the whole blueprint for what I should be doing. They offered to sell me the forms to make it easy, for only $5995, but I'm pretty sure just a little research can get me the same things, if not for free, then for just a couple of hundred bucks. Good stuff.
I was also looking forward to the Keynote speakers - Tony Robbins on Day 1 and Donald Trump on Day 2. Tony Robbins was pre-recorded, but it was pretty good anyway. Now it was time for "The Donald". He'd been announced as getting there 1/2 an hour late, so there should be no hurry to get a seat.
I was a little delayed getting to the Hall where he was going to speak, but my red VIP badge got me past the "velvet rope" down to the front 10 rows, which were looking pretty full. The hall was split up into a bunch of sections during the day, with large cloth panels used to separate the VIP purchase area from the hoi-poloi, and to make virtual rooms to one side and the other, as well as to create a backstage area.
One of the ushers waved me over, pointing to one of the few open seats left. I "excuse-me"d down to the spot, and wedged myself in between two attractive women, a blonde on my left and a brunette on my right. Because we were sitting in the rightmost section of the seats, the main podium was over to my left as well. As such you tended to sit turned in your seat a bit, for a more natural view, which placed the brunette "behind" me and the blonde in "front" of me.
Now I'm not a little guy. Not huge, but my shoulders are a good bit wider than most. And at 220 lbs, I'm mostly muscle, though a good way from having 'abs of steel'. The biggest problem is I'm wide. W-I-D-E. Really wide in the shoulders with a 48 inch chest. My Hawaiian heritage. It makes for uncomfortable seating in coach-class on airplanes, and in places like this, where the chairs are locked together, and they're all made for 118# weaklings, and little things, like the size 2 women on either side of me.
A speaker was just finishing up, and when he went into pitch mode, I asked the blonde "How was he?"
"I don't know, I just got here a minute ago too. I'm here for Trump."
Let me get this out up front. I'm a horn-dog, with an addiction to women. I love blondes. And Brunettes. Redheads too. Girls with black hair, purple hair, pink hair all work for me. I'd probably even enjoy a bald girl. If I do I'll let you know.
I'm a married man (I know, shame on me). Happily married to a woman devoted to me, who spoils me terribly. And I have an incredible daughter who is the light of my life. But there is that addiction, and I could feel the symptoms coming on.
"What are you here for? At the Expo, I mean," I asked her, surreptitiously taking in her pretty face, turned up nose, cute eyeglasses, and pinned up blonde hair. Her hands were free of any rings.
"Mostly just hanging out," she told me.
It seemed kind of odd. It cost a couple of hundred bucks to 'hang-out' in the VIP section, less if you signed up early and were on the right mailing list. Maybe a $100. But still pricey for "hanging out."
Even stranger was the way she was sitting. There was another pretty big black guy sitting on the other side of her, and he had all his materials from the day on the floor between his legs, forcing him to sit with his legs open. As soon as I sat down, she moved away from him, leaving a couple of inches gap, and scooted up right next to me, her side pressed against mine. Then she turned away and watched the stage.
We were quiet for a bit, and I tried to start a conversation again. A glutton for punishment, I do this a lot. I like people. I like to talk to people. I guess I'm a bit of an extrovert sometimes. And in a setting like this, anybody could be a great networking contact.
"What do you do?" I asked.
She spoke softly, and I had to bend down to hear her. Damn, she smelled good too. "I own my own business, how about you?" she answered.
"Some real-estate investment, some writing, a real-life job I wouldn't mind ditching. I'm thinking of getting into a gig like this - professional speaking." I told her.
She patted me on the leg, a pretty friendly thing to do, I thought, then said, "Will you save my seat for me while I go take a smoke break?"
"Absolutely. I wouldn't dream of letting anyone else sit next to me." I told her with my most charming boyish smile, which seldom works, but you can't fault a guy for trying.
She patted me on the arm again, giving it a little squeeze, and then eased her way past me and out the row, with a green pack of Salems in her hand. She left her tote bag with all her materials, so I didn't think she was just blowing me off nicely.
As she walked by, I took the time to check more of her out. Definitely a looker, with a light zip-up sweatshirt (unzipped) over a scoop-neck white tee, and a blue jean skirt that hugged her very pleasant looking hips. She had long slender legs, that ended in ankle-high white socks and a pair of black canvas sneakers. Looked like Converse. I estimated her age in the early 20's. Yeah, I know, I'm a dirty old man, getting worked up over a girl 1/2 my age.
I turned to see what the brunette was up to, only to see that she was in a heated conversation with the guy next to her who had his arm around her. Pretty, but taken. No progress there.
I looked around a bit, and realized the guy in front of me, actually in front of the empty seat next to me, had been in another workshop with me and we'd had a nice chat. I tapped him on the shoulder, renewed our acquaintance, and asked him about the legal workshop we'd both attended, mostly to see if he'd bought the program. He was leaning towards it, and if he had, I was considering offering to split the price with him, to get to work with it. Not worth going into, because he hadn't bought it. A little more conversation, with his buddy chiming in, and before I knew it, my blonde neighbor was returning. I sat back in my chair to let her by, and she sat back down, once again sidling right up next to me. I mean close contact.
I have to tell you this was definitely new territory for me. I've known friendly women, and aggressive women, but this woman just seemed to like pressing against me. My mind was spinning trying to figure this out, it wasn't something in my known realm of experiences, and not to brag, but I have had my share.
[I had second thoughts about using this experience to start my "Serendipity" series. I'm really trying to keep the stories as real as possible, and this behavior was certainly unreal to me. So I'll just leave it to you, the reader. You can believe it, or just enjoy it for it's pure titillation. But I digress...]
I continued talking to Martin, and his friend whose name I never caught. After a bit the pretty blonde joined in the conversation, and we just rambled while waiting for Donald Trump's segment to begin. I had a choice of sitting with my arms crossed, and shoulders pulled in, or taking up half the seats on either side of me. But I could also turn a bit in the seat, and put my arm behind the seat to my side, which I did, especially easy since we were in the last VIP row, and there was an open space behind us with the barrier between us and the green-badgers.
"Blondie" must have considered this some kind of invitation. She turned even more into me, and turned her head, resting it on my shoulder. She took several opportunities to pat me on the leg and arm again. I've read a few books on body behavior, and everything I know tells me this was a sign that I could be more forward, but I was still very hesitant. It seemed a spectacularly weird place to be hitting on a strange woman. But my little head was starting to wake up and do part of the thinking for me.