Week 20 - Where did it go?

Week 20, Day 1 Outfit: BR turquoise cap-sleeved tee, BR denim shorts - good outfit for garage sale prepping!

Week 20, Day 2 Outfit: Office day - Ann Taylor Loft navy skirt, BR stripped short sleeved button down woven shirt (missing a button which is why I am standing so weird!), BR beige patent leather pumps

Week 20, Day 3: Work from Home Day

Week 20, Day 4: Travel Day - BR black camisole, Gap Green Courdoroy shorts, Black Ann Taylor Loft wedge flip flopsWeek 20, Day 5: Plant Visit Day (re-enacted at home) - Burberry polo, Ann Taylor Loft Beige Khakis, Sketcher sneakers

Week 20, Day 6: Another plant visit day (re-enacted at home) White Old Navy v-neck woven shirt, Pink Ann Taylor Loft capris, Black flats from DWS (can't remember the brand)

Week 20, Day 7 Outfit: Garage Sale Day! Pink Ann Taylor Cap-Sleeved Tee, White JCrew trousers, black Ann Taylor Wedge Flip Flops

Wow, has this week flown by! I spent one day in the office, then a work from home day, then travel to Florida for a 2-day plant visit. The travel gods had it out for me and I therefore paid my dues on Wednesday. My flight from Detroit to Atlanta was delayed by an hour because the flight crew was late coming in from San Diego. This caused me to miss my connecting flight which put me in the throes of a mad (literally) crowd of people who also missed their connecting flights and were frantically trying to find alternate flights. Delta now has this system that will automatically re-assign you to the next available flight to your destination. All you have to do is scan your original boarding pass and out pops a new ticket with your new flight plan. Well, given that this was a client engagment, I HAD to get to Florida, so I stood in the crazy line in front of Customer Service, was directed to a phone to speak with a customer service rep who ended up being very helpful and putting me on a flight to a city about 1.5 hours away from my original destination. This put me into the city at right about 1:30 in the morning after landing, getting a car, and then making the drive. It's just amazing how rude some of the flight attendants can be. When I realized that I would likely miss my flight, I flagged down one of the attendants and asked her if there was anything could do. Her response? "I don't know what to tell you." My response back to her "Well, can you make some kind of announcement asking travelers who don't have a flight to catch to let the rest of us go first?" Her response "you telling me that you're gonna run all the way down the aisle to catch your flight? Pft! Good luck!" and she walks away. BITCH! Earlier, at the gate in Detroit, I approached the ticketing agent to ask if I should be concerned about catching my flight...her response "your flight to Florida doesn't leave until 8:45pm, you'll have plenty of time to catch your flight." My response "my ticket says that my flight leaves at 8:20." Her rude reply "You are looking at the boarding time." Me: "um, okay, even though it's plain and clear on my ticket that the flight leaves at 8:20!" BITCH! Seriously, I sometimes think the main criteria for hiring these employees is "how much of an attitude can you throw at innocent passengers...especially if the reason they miss their flights is because we are total idiots and cannot seem to get things running in an efficient manner?" Southwest is still my favorite airline...the people are way nicer, as soon as the plane door closes, the plane pulls back and takes off within 10 minutes. Delta? The plane door closes, and 10 minutes later you get an announcement from the captain telling you that there is paperwork that still needs to be filled out and there will be a bit of delay. Um, HELLO??? What the hell were you doing all the while we were boarding the plane? Picking your nose?

Anyway, I got to my destination fine, got a total of 4 hours of sleep, spent the day visiting a large orange juice manufacturing facility, and then caught up on work, had dinner with the client, and was "forced" to stay out until 1:30A with the client bar-hopping...yes, another 1:30A arrival back at the hotel! While out at our last bar, one of my clients was listing off his top rules in life - and one was to save up for retirement. One of the other clients, a very well-dressed New Yorker from the corporate offices of the company I was doing work for, mentioned that she might need to start doing a better job of this given that she loves clothes (as was evident by her Calvin Klein pin-striped pants), has both a Hummer and a BMW, and a house in Chappaqua - all for just herself! Um, yes, perhaps she could start saving a bit more...but damn, she is well-dressed! I mentioned to her that I was doing this challenge, and she said...wow, that's a great idea...not sure how much she took it to heart.

While away, my poor cat Sunny breathed his last breath. He had been losing quite a bit of weight over the course of the past 2 months and pretty much stopped eating on his own for the past month. Mike was force-feeding him Ensure...but I think he finally just gave up. He was buried beneath the buddha statue in our back yard - fitting considering that his full name was Sunshine Dharma and came to Mike as he was meditating at a buddhist monastery.

To round out the week, we are on Day 2 of our Fri/Sat garage sale. Before leaving for my trip, I spent as much of my spare time I could rummaging through all of my goods (clothes included) to find stuff to sell. We got rid of quite a few larger items that were taking up space - a couch, a bar & stools, a futon. As I was traveling most of yesterday, Mike had to man the fort - and was going by the motto "let's get rid of this stuff, even if it means giving it away for free, because we don't want to have to haul it back inside." I'm now blogging on a dining room chair which I'm hoping to get rid of by the day's end, staring out into the empty street wondering where all the garage salers are. I did sell a purse that I bought for $60 for $1.50. Wow, what a return on investment! Apparel is not the big seller at these events...that's for sure! Our proceeds from this weekend probably wouldn't even cover one shopping trip in my past life! I think we'll instead use it for dinner out :)