Fat Tuesday caught up with me today.
Ever-determined to stick with my walking plan, I decided to walk this morning despite a bit of a headache from last night's Fat Tuesday shenanigans. I woke up, put on workout clothes, and carefully packed a dress, tights, boots and sweater in my manly backpack, deciding that there's nothing like a brisk walk in 42 degree weather to rid my system of last night's toxins.
By the time I got to work I felt great. After throwing back a soy chai and checking a few emails, I went to change out of my workout clothes, ready to take on the day. Except I forgot to pack a regular bra. Of all things to forget!
The result? I spent the day strategically hiding my bright turquoise sports bra, displayed boldly around the neckline of my otherwise conservative mustard yellow dress. I piled on a necklace and a sweater, but in order to keep the turquoise material from sticking out, I had to raise my shoulders and thrust my chin downwards to make my neck seem invisible. That was a fun little challenge. It was even more challenging when a guest came into the office and my coworker brought him over to meet me. When I stood up to shake the poor fellow's hand, I worked so hard to make my neck look invisible that he looked at me sideways, like I'm a weird old troll lady who lives under a bridge.
Bra-hiding game aside, I managed to knock out a lot of things on my to-do list, one of which was to prep for an important customer call at 1:00. Because that meeting was my top priority for the afternoon, I finished up with a full hour free to grab lunch across the street. Standing in line for lunch, I reviewed some work emails on my phone when I and saw the subject line:
"Are we still on for today?" I scrolled down a little further and the body of the email said, "Amy, are you going to start the meeting?"
Gasping loud enough for the people in line to turn and stare at me, I realized that my meeting was for 12:00 instead of 1:00. Complete panic set in. I jumped out of line and ran full force back to my office, heart pounding. Surely people I ran past thought I'd just swiped a tip jar or an old woman's handbag. It wasn't until later this afternoon that I realized my bright turquoise sports bra was on full display for the world to see, because while I ran, I forgot to make my neck invisible.
I ran out of the elevator and jumped over to my desk, starting the meeting at 8 minutes after noon, breathless and mortified. Lucky for me, this particular group of customers was a team of kindhearted and forgiving people, who got pretty tickled at the idea of me running down the street for them. But still, it was one of my most embarrassing professional moments.
Worse yet, one of our managers was in town from our headquarter office, and before my scheduling snafu, I offered to pick up his lunch, so that left both of us empty-handed and starving. Hating to ask for help, I begged a wildly understanding coworker to get our lunches while I dialed into the next call. I was extremely thankful, especially because I wasn't looking forward to walking back into a restaurant that I'd darted out of like the place was burning down.
So as I wrap up another day with 3 walking miles logged, I can't help but wonder if leaving my bra at home was part of some Ash Wednesday Master Plan, and that I should give thanks for my turquoise sports bra for helping me haul ass when I needed it most.
No comments:
Post a Comment