I'll send you the bill

I now know how much my time is worth - particularly an hour of my time on a Wednesday evening [travel included].

Exactly $41.73

That's how much it's costing me to send a snazzy little vase of flowers [classy ones! no baby's breath or similar filler] over to an acquaintance's law firm opening.

I have the standard issue list of reasons for not attending the after-work celebrations:

1. I have a previous commitment, closer to home and, therefore, far away from the firm's new office space. [actually, I really do - for the local writers' group]
2. I'd have to dress up! [okay, that's not really an excuse, just a realization]
3. I know only one of the partners - by virtue of sitting on a board with her.
4. The firm, as a whole, has probably invited half the city and would be unlikely to notice my presence or absence from the event.
5. My ability to make legalese small talk is slim to none. More like none.
6. I couldn't even turn it into a networking thing [okay, if I really, really felt the need to, I could BS my way through a brief visit, but to what end??] as I'm not a potential client for their set of services, nor do I have any valuable, or even relevant, connections that I could play up.

It's all a cop-out. I may yet be guilted into a brief appearance by my nagging little brain. It'd be the nice thing to do. I know that. [hey - so are the cop-out flowers!] Realistically, I could, with some effort, attend for a very brief time immediately after work. A quick "hi, wow, cool place. well, best of luck, gotta run!" never really killed anyone. It might make one look like a flake, but it never killed them.

It never made them $41.73, either.