I enter the party to celebrate Lew Soloff’s birthday (you can google him).

My eyes darted around searching for someone I know.

I stop darting because I know plenty of people.

I spot the birthday boy talking to his friend Paul Shaffer (who is one of the hosts of the party)

I walk over , kiss them, give Lew his birthday present and try to pull off a joke that lies there like a lox.

(I gotta stop here. When you tell a joke that isn’t funny AND HAS A PROP (in this case a box of cereal but that’s all I’m going to tell you about that) in front of David Letterman’s sidekick the rest of the evening can only improve.

Paul and Lew , being kind, replaced the puzzled looks on their faces with smiles so I could slither away with some of my pride intact. At least that’s what I told myself.

The party was great. My two closest friends, Susan and Ronnie were there and loads of musicians I hadn’t seen in a long time.

We had cocktails, yapped and listened to the band.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Paul talking to Donatella Versace. You’re saying to yourself, “Why would Donatella Versace be at a musician’s party?  She doesn’t play anything.

The answer? Beats me but she was. I spent the next 40 minutes trying to get a picture of her without her knowing it.

It turns out I wasn’t able to which was ok because later someone told me that she was in fact not Donatella but the wife of someone from Lewie’s shul.

I had had 2 drinks by then which is a lot for me. I wasn’t drunk by any means but I was feeling happy.

Then Emile Charlap and his wife Diane came in.

You can google Emile too if you want but I’ll tell you a little about him.

For as long as I can remember, little or no music was done in New York without going through Emile’s office. Emile was New York music.  He’s 96 now and still goes into his office most days.

Oh yeah and he was the best man at my wedding.

I hadn’t seen either of them since dave and I broke up and I assumed it would be awkward if I did. I should have known  that I could handle it in a calm dignified way and it would be fine.

As soon as I saw him I put my arms around him and burst into sobs that went on way too long.

Par-tay!

We all sat around talking and laughing until I decided to go home since I was fairly sure that I was going blind.

I only found out why this morning when Ronnie sent me a picture of some of us and I realized that I was wearing sun glasses.