Accidental Adventure

Jeff and I had a pretty eventful evening last night... accidentally. Our friend got us tickets to the opening of Annie Leibovitz's exhibit at the Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC. Actually, the tickets themselves never came because they were sent out late, but our names would be 'on the list' so it would be ok.

So last night, Jeff and I got all dressed up and went over to the museum. We were there a little early and the people working asked if we were there for the party, and we said yes. They said they were still setting up, so Jeff and I wandered around and came back a little later. When we came back there were other people dressed in formal clothing like us, waiting to go in. We didn't know anybody, but that was to be expected.

When the doors open everybody went in, including Jeff and I. It turned out they never asked for our tickets and didn't check a list for our names. Jeff and I were joking that we could be anybody - just dress up nice and show up and you're in.

It was really nice inside - there was music and wine and hors d'oeuvres. Jeff and I snacked and talked to each other. We wandered around and went and saw the exhibits. The Annie Leibovitz exhibit was closed, but we figured they must be planning to open it after some speaking.

Some people had brought cards and there was a table with a gift on it, which Jeff and I figured could be friends who had brought her Birthday gifts (since it was just her birthday on Oct 2nd). So after wandering around we went back to the main room for more wine and mini crab cakes.

After about 2 hours at the party, someone went up to the podium to speak. Jeff and I went closer to be able to see and hear. Then the speaker mentioned something about congratulating Heather on her hard work. (Jeff and I were wondering if that was the person at the museum that helped set up the exhibit.) They mentioned 30 years of work. (Which makes sense, since the exhibit is Annie Leibovitz: A photographer's life.) Then they continued to talk about Heather. (At this point it was starting to seem odd that they hadn't mentioned Annie Leibovitz at all.) Then the speaker said that a series of people who have worked with Heather are going to tell stories about her. They mentioned her great contributions to the company.

It was around this point that Jeff and I started feeling a little uneasy. We were definitely at the wrong event. Not being experienced party crashers, Jeff and I started to get nervous. Jeff started sweating. I started glancing around the room to see if anyone was looking at us. (Mostly they were still looking at the speaker.) Jeff and I drifted towards the back of the room. We set down our wine and tried to decide what to do. We decided the best thing would be to go back and call our friend to find out what happened - we knew the event was supposed to be at this location, and we'd had it on the calendar for weeks.

Trying to be inconspicuous, I took out my cell phone and went out the door as if I had to make a call. Jeff, who was supposed to wait a little while and then leave, only waited about 30 seconds, so I'm pretty sure the person at the door knew we were leaving together...

It turns out that the event we're supposed to go to is on Tuesday, and there just happened to be an event on Saturday that was in no way related except that it was at the same museum, fancy, and filled with people Jeff and I didn't know.

So that was our adventurous Saturday night. On the bright side, it was a very nice party.