SHE SAID. . . (after having a family of lawyers deciding NOT to be sworn in). . . It was THURSDAY, (not Tuesday, you can check the calendar) February 26th, 1998 and I was sitting at  the bar having a beer after 14 hellish hours as a waitress (yes mom, that was my decision) and not really wanting to talk to anyone.  I had my back to the door and there was no one at the bar besides  me for miles.  I was talking to Billy the Bartender, barely, and figuring that after that beer I was going to go home and become comatose for at least 10 hours, when out of nowhere some guy  walks in the door and stands so close to me that I could already identify his deodorant.  Glancing out of the corner of my tired eyes I noticed that he was well dressed, and he started talking to Billy.  I  realized that they were friends and I had a decision to make: either get up and move over since he seemed intent on breathing my air, or turn around and say hello since we were almost Siamese twins.   Despite knowing Billy well enough to know that I didn't want to fraternize with almost anyone he knew, I decided to say hello.  "Hi, I'm Tommy."  (Background info:  When I moved into D.C. I knew  no one and introduced myself to new people as Tommy as a safeguard to distinguish who I met from who really knew me.  If you were close enough to me to call me Tamaya I didn't have to  worry when I saw you again in an alley at 2am.)  He turned around and introduced himself and we began the preliminaries of getting to know each other.  I still have no idea why I bothered to strike up a  conversation with him.  I suppose it's just in me to be open instead of an introvert.  We talked for a while and he finally started drinking  beer with me.  I got up to go 'powder my nose' and (as I found out later) he asked Billy what my status was.  Billy informed him that I was "involved", ( would use that term loosely) which I was, and  that if he hadn't been able to break me then Ivan couldn't either.  In Billy's words, "No chance man."  After half an hour of Ivan telling me how important his life was I delicately told him, "I don't mean to  be rude, but I could really care less what you do or who you know, who are you?"  I guess I've always been pretty much straight forward.  We started talking about us and our families and ended  up closing down the bar.  He offered me a ride home since it was "on the way" and I accepted.  It was a short drive but he invited me to go to his friends going away party the next night.  I felt that he  was a trustworthy guy, man was I wrong, and said that I would think about it and give him a call tomorrow.  I never really intended to call, but I thought what the hell, since I didn't really know a lot of  people in D.C. and he seemed like a fun guy.  We went out the next night, had a great time while I was trying to keep him at arms length, and believe it or not, he broke down my defenses.  I ended  up grabbing HIM by the back of the neck on the dance floor and laying one on him.  I think he had a vile of Kryptonite in his pocket.  That's the only possible explanation.  Of course that's only my  opinion, I could be wrong...