In the words of our last President, "Liz, I feel your pain..."

I am so sorry ... I know how embarassing it can be to break a flimsy chair. Occasionally, even the most slender among us will break a piece of furniture, and feel embarassed, too, but we know it's a matter of degrees. The larger, the worse it seems, and to top it off - in front of your husband's bigwig coworkers!!

At the end of your post you mentioned that you stayed as charming as possible so people would remember you as nice, even if you were fat. Maybe some of those folks thought of you as brave, too, for not freaking out and running out of the gathering sobbing? You continued on, presenting a very together public face.

Perhaps it was fate that your chair experiences happened on the same day? Just like life, something great and something horrible, all in one crazy jumble?