Professional

I am a professional. I am a professional. I am a professional.

I think.

But would a professional leave her phone under a napkin at a restaurant on her very first big-girl business trip? Hmmmmmm? Would she? No.

So I'm kind of professional. Almost a professional. A professional wannabe?
But I have my brand-new-with-tags-on $280 Calvin Klein suit in my bag! Doesn't that make me at least a little bit professional?! DOESN'T IT?!

Here's what happened.

My school is sending me to Orlando to attend a conference. Only five teachers in the whole K-8 school got chosen (we have over 30!), and I was one of them. AHHHH! I'm a first year, and my boss wants ME to represent our school?! No pressure. No other first years were chosen, so I feel like I'm way out of my league here.

Since Saturday, I've dragged Rex to (no lie) 8+ stores trying to find a suit to wear to this conference. My friend (and roommate on this trip) is named Shelley, and she's awesome but she's also the most fashionable person I've ever met. It's a bit intimidating. She said I DEFINITELY need a suit since everyone who's anyone will be wearing a suit at this conference. She's been to a bunch of these before, so I figured she would know.

The problem is, suits are EXPENSIVE. I started at Goodwill to try to find one, but no luck. Well, they had one that was bright (BRIGHT) blue with giant fake jewels all over it, but I didn't really think that's what Shelley was suggesting for me. All the other stores I went to either didn't have my size or were way out of my price range.

Last night, I resigned myself to being the unfashionable one without a suit to wear. I packed up my most businesslike dress and just hoped that they wouldn't hold me accountable to the suit standard since this is my first time at the conference.

Rex surprised me with a fancy dinner date last night to say goodbye. On our way to dinner, we passed a Burlington Coat Factory. I exclaimed, "Hey, we haven't tried there! Maybe they have a suit!" Because my husband loves me, he didn't even roll his eyes or anything. He just drove into the parking lot and steeled himself for another shopping trip. "This is the last store," I promised. "If they don't have a suit, I swear I won't make you look anywhere else."

To make a long story short, they had a beautiful charcoal gray business suit from Calvin Klein on clearance for only $49.99! WHOO HOO! And it FIT! I was so happy. I was now armed with my suit and my kindle (which I got for free with my Office Max teacher rewards points!), so I figured I was about as businesslike as I was going to get.

Rex dropped me off at the airport this morning at 7:00 even though my plane doesn't leave until 10:50. He had to get to class. Knowing I had time to kill, I stopped into the fanciest restaurant I could find for some breakfast. After all, my school gave me a food allowance! I get $266 for a four-day trip. I literally don't know how I'm going to spend that much money on food, seeing as three or four of my meals are already provided by the conference. Whatever I don't spend of the $266 I have to give back, though, so my boss said, "Live a little. Get some good snacks at the airport. You might as well spend it all since you can't keep it." So I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu just because I could. I'm so not used to this. Usually on vacations my dad would give each of us $2 for the dollar menu at McDonalds. Now I have to spend $66.50 per day on food?! That's a week of grocery money PER DAY!

Anyway, I had a delicious meal of some fancy scrambled egg concoction with salsa and cheese and other fancy things, breakfast potatoes, and an orange juice. It was delicious, but it cost $17.50! For BREAKFAST. When she brought the bill, my stomach knotted up. Was I really about to spend $17.50 on ONE MEAL? Yep, I was. I paid the bill, but I was so flustered about my expensive meal and the fact that the woman at the table next to me was YELLING at her husband...that I left my phone under my napkin.

I didn't know this (obviously), and I was just in a hurry to get away from rabid wife and on to my gate. Her poor husband... I wanted to leave him an encouraging note or something: "You can do it! She'll have to run out of steam eventually!" She'd been yelling for twenty minutes, though, and she hadn't run out of steam yet. Poor guy. I don't even know what she was mad about, and I'd been hearing her rant for almost my entire breakfast. Oh well.

I hurried to the Hudson News convenience store to get some gum for my flight. A pack of raisinettes looked pretty good...but it was $3.99 for a bag! I immediately put them back. I decided to go get my favorite drink - a Vitamin Water. Vitamin Waters were $3.49! Stupid airport prices... I was about to turn and walk out of the store empty handed, but then I thought, "Okay Christine, when else in your life are you going to even have the OPTION to buy a $4 bag of rasinettes? Probably never." So I marched up to the counter and spent $9 on my candy, Vitamin Water, and a pack of gum. Oh my...I might be able to use this food allowance faster than I thought!

I settled into Verizon's "Recharge Station" to plug in my computer and write this fabulous blog, but I figured I should text Rex first to let him know that I was safely through security. Unfortunately, I didn't have my phone. AHHHHHHH! I couldn't believe I had already screwed up so badly, and I was only about a half hour into my trip. I rushed back to the restaurant, and luckily the waitress had found my phone under the napkin and kept it for me. Hooray for honest people!

So now here I am at the Verizon Recharge station, writing this blog as I charge my phone and my kindle. Hopefully I've already made the biggest mistake that I'll make on this trip, and luckily none of my coworkers are here to have witness my slip-up. I will pull it together. Starting....NOW. As of 8:43 on 11/9/11 - I am now a professional. I will have good posture, wear posh clothes, and I WILL NOT lose any more of my stuff.