Chauffeuring, not such a bad gig...

I took the day off from school and took a volunteer position as a chauffer. “An odd choice of professions,” you may be thinking to yourself. However, my temporary job as a chauffer was both an honor and a pleasure.

Melissa, my wife, works in the foundation of a hospital here in Dallas. The foundation had some seats at a luncheon where former President and First Lady, George and Barbara Bush were the keynote speakers. Melissa invited Ebby Halliday, a friend of the Bush family and the queen of Dallas real estate to attend the luncheon as her guest.

Now, in case you aren’t from Dallas, or are not in real estate, Ms. Ebby Halliday is truly one of the nations most amazing women. She started in business here in Dallas back in the 1930’s. This was a time when women were neither wanted, nor easily accepted into the business world. Ms. Halliday not only started selling homes here in Dallas, but she opened her own office and quickly became the city’s and state’s most successful realtor. That was 60 years ago and Ebby Halliday is north Texas’ first name in real estate. You can find out more about this remarkable woman here.

We thought that, even though the hotel had valet parking, having a person drive them to and from the event would be much better. I mean, why wait in the huge valet parking line if you don’t have to. So I, being the loving and dutiful husband that I am, quickly volunteered my services. However, after we got there we found that self-parking, while available, was even more of a wait than the valet, so we ended up using the valet after all. As it turned out, one of the hospital’s other guests was unable to attend the luncheon, so I was able to not only be a driver, but a guest as well.

And let me just say that both the President and First Lady are wonderful speakers. Their speeches were both funny and sincerely heart felt. This was a luncheon funding the Genesis Women’s Shelter and it was easy to tell that both George and Barbara Bush care deeply for battered women everywhere.

My father-in-law has been a manager with Ebby Halliday Realtors for more than 30 years, and I’ve always heard how wonderful Ms. Halliday is from him. Over the past 17 years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Halliday on several different occasions, but I’d never really spent much time with her. However, while I knew I was going to have fun, I was not prepared for the truly wonderful day I was going to have.

Ms. Halliday was simply a joy to be with! She is the epitome of elegance and grace. The car ride to the hotel was filled with talking and laughter. Ms. Halliday didn’t even get upset when I got lost. (Really more of a wrong turn…I don’t drive downtown very much these days)

Melissa even bravely confronted the Secret Service agents and somehow got permission for Ms. Halliday to go up on stage and speak with the George and Barbara Bush. (Which was no small task…there’s nothing my wife can’t do, but that’s a story for another day)

The ride home was as fun and memorable as the ride to the event. Except this time I didn’t get lost!

So, a day in the life of this chauffer was filled with nothing but fun people, interesting conversation, invigorating company and good food. Top it all off with a much needed, and may I say well deserved, day off and it adds up to a great day!

Chauffeuring, not such a bad gig…if you have the right passengers!