At a lunch meeting today with a prospective client, I mentioned Morgan Bentley — only I referred to him as Morgan Stanley! Good grief; at least the client only razzed me slightly.

Then, tonight, I was sitting outside on my stoop with my cat, Boomerang, on his cute little red leash. Covered in cat hair (Boomer and I had a tussle over putting on the leash) and dressed in my “cleaning the house” duds, I sat on the stoop with the door open, half-listening to the nightly news and enjoying the not-very-cool breeze.

Suddenly, a tall man walked up my driveway and startled me out of my reverie. I’m thinking: oh, great, a good-looking man finally comes to my house and look at me, looking all Lucy’d out, and slumped against my front door wrung out by only a half-hour of house-cleaning.

Then, I realized, that’s not just any man, that’s Morgan Stanley, er, Bentley!! At my house!! Just hours after I was talking about him.

Mortified by being caught so horribly dishabille, I stood up to greet him, hoping he wouldn’t ask my name! Secretly wishing I’d been behind closed doors and could have pretended not to hear his knock ….

Mr. Bentley politely ignored my grungy attire and inquired about my cat — does he really walk on a leash, he asked? Of course, was my reply. (My cats are nothing if not well-trained.) He introduced himself and told me he was running for State Senate, and I wished him luck with his campaign. We chatted for a minute and then he went on along his way.

So, here’s my point. I was already pretty sure I was going to vote for Bentley, but the fact that this guy is out hoofing it along Sarasota streets on his own, knocking on doors, and running across crazy cat chicks comme moi, sealed the deal.

I’m mightily impressed with a candidate who’s got the chutzpah to go door to door — a candidate who gets out and rocks the vote for himself — one on one. Pretty cool.

And, of course, as always — another Mom lesson proved right: NEVER EVER step outside your home without putting on at least a clean shirt and lipstick — you never know who you might run into!