Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Week 10, Day 4 - Feelin' the Urge


Week 10, Day 4 Outfit: BR black suit (which, to my dismay, I discovered that the jacket and pants are completely different materials...how that happened, I do not know, but the camera does not lie!), Ann Taylor blue silk short sleeve blouse with clear buttons (my favorite feature)


Today was Day 2 with another set of executives at a small midwestern bank...this second group was not nearly as intimidating as the first. There were several factors that might have made for this case: 1) I wore a black pantsuit, 2) I was not wearing my glasses (in protest to this dumb eye thing I have going on), 3) did not wear my hair back, 4) was not in a board room complete with 12 person long lacquered table, marble countertops, a panaromic view, and fancy little leather writing pads at each seat, 5) made the client facilitate most of the session, 6) this group of execs was the younger crowd and not the crochety bit that I had yesterday.


Though my session with the client ended early, I was completely wiped by 2pm CST and headed straight to begin the 2nd portion of my Chicago trip and checked into my Hampton Inn. After spending about 10 minutes taking multiple picture of today's outfit (I've discovered that my camera sucks and only produces 1 in 10 shots that are not blurry...anyone who knows anything about photography, please help!), catching up on email, and taking a few phone calls, I decided to call it quits for the day and find a restaurant with outdoor seating - as today's weather was 80 and sunny - a real treat in Chicago this time of year. I found a Gordon Biersch, ate my dinner with a glass of Chardonnay, and was feeling pretty good about the day, especially anticipating being able to get back to my hotel early and watch back to back episodes of Glee. It was painful to be in an outdoor mall with decent shops, on a sunny day, and have to resist all the store windows calling my name...but I did...though I must admit that today was the greatest urge to shop that I've had since beginning this challenge. I did manage to buy a little something - a birthday gift for Maggie's daughter. Stupid me...butterfly wings and a tiara are not exactly the easiest things to fit in an already packed suitcase...I guess we'll find out!


On my way back from dinner, I decided to pull into a gas station to fill the tank so I don't have to do it tomorrow right before returning the car to the airport and discovered that I had left my credit card at the restaurant. DRAT! So, back to the restaurant I go, and on the way back pull into a Shell to gas up, only to find that all stations are packed and witness what I firmly believe was a drug sale at one of the pumps. I should have honked at the guy and threatened to narc on him unless he either 1) gave up his pump, or 2) shared the loot (are blogs incriminating?).


I am so excited about finally heading home after 1.5 weeks of straight travel, activity, and eating total crap. Though I'm keeping up the pescatarian thing (the veg thing went out the window), I still feel bloated and crappy. The guy that gave me a Thai massage the other day was doing some kind of Ayurvedic technique on my foot and told me that I have digestive issues and should stay away from raw foods and foods with too much air - well, in my avoidance of raw foods, I'm still feeling crappy. I guess the glass of wine I have every day or so does not really help the matter...or the fact that I get little to NO water when I travel and am constantly tempted by cookies. One thing Up in the Air did not address about travel is the fact that you become a bloated cow after eating out every day and sitting in meetings all day. Sure, you walk around in the airport, but then spend 3+ hours sitting on a plane, in the gate area, or at the bar as you pass time with your time-passing elixir (aka, alcohol).


I cannot wait for a week of normalcy - kind of - before yet another full week of travel. Geez...I miss the work from home days, but I will certainly be posting a lot of pictures during high travel time!

No comments:

Post a Comment