"Who is that really hot guy in the ascot?"

The real reason for my weekend trip back to Dallas was that David, the Director (and friend) for whom I have been working almost exclusively for the past few years, was being admitted to the PwC partnership. Making Partner is a pretty big deal and I was happy to make the trip to help celebrate.

In preparing for my trip, I collected gifts for some of my closest friends, but also planned a little surprise for David, too. For a little background, he and I were in New York for work last year - after it had already been decided that I would be working in Luxembourg for awhile. As we walked down the street, we spotted a gentleman at a sidewalk cafe wearing a strange piece of neckwear. David looked at me and said something to the effect of, "you need to get yourself an ascot when you move to Europe."

With that in mind, I decided I did "need to get myself an ascot" and wear it on David's big day - so I did. But I didn't just wear it to get a laugh at the champagne toast in the office, I wore it all day long. From the champagne toast, to lunch at Taco Diner, to happy hour at Truluck's and even to dinner at Nick & Sam's. I got a few laughs, plenty of strange looks and some people thought I was being serious in wearing it. Some probably still do...and maybe I was.