BUFFALO - Then-Lt. Gov David Paterson was at his desk about to dig into lunch March 10 when he got a phone call that would take him from “stunned disbelief” to the governor's office in a single week.

Delivering the keynote address at a gathering of lieutenant governors Wednesday, he said the call came from the Gov. Eliot Spitzer's secretary. Two days later, Spitzer would resign amid accusations he had spent tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes.

“What was shared with me was so shocking and so amazing that I'm sitting there in stunned disbelief,” Paterson told his former colleagues.

Paterson, who had been in office 14 months, said he decided to go home and wait out the day's news cycle.

“I opened the door to leave and 15 cameras went off in my face,” he said. “I closed my door, I put my back to the door, I looked at my two staff members and said, ‘I think my life just changed.”'

Paterson didn't mention Spitzer by name during his address to the National Lieutenant Governors Association, but did recall being asked at his first press conference whether he'd ever patronized a prostitute.

His response: “Only the lobbyists.”

“Should you ever experience what I went through,” he told the lieutenant governors, “remember, which ever way your predecessor goes out is the way you will come in. So if your predecessor is involved in some form of criminality, you will be asked about it.”

He advised the group to take things one day at a time if they ever find themselves suddenly in charge.

“It is a rare, rare occurrence and yet an immense opportunity, testing every possible skill and personality trait you have, and it's certainly the most exciting of experiences,” he said, adding, “I don't know that I would want to relive it.”

The conference agenda also includes workshops on developing public-private partnerships in parks, trends in tourism, the U.S. economic outlook and controlling the costs of chronic illness.

Paterson said his own experience took him back to a seminar at last spring's NLGA conference - one it turns out he didn't pay nearly enough attention to - about being prepared to take over the state's top job.

“I'm the newest member of the group,” Paterson recalled thinking.

“I will admit I was sort of daydreaming through the presentation.”