In Which I Amaze Even Myself

Packing for any trip is a pain, especially one of considerable duration. This time around, I knew I'd be on the road for better than two weeks and I dreaded the chore that packing was sure to be. I'd need fancy work clothes and casual on-the-campaign-trail clothes and workout clothes and going out clothes, not to mention shoes to go with all those clothes! I finally convinced myself it would be OK to pack two suitcases. Or a suitcase and a duffle bag of sufficient size to dispose of a dead body. Hauling that much stuff on the Metro wouldn't be fun, but hey, that's why cabs were invented. I'd have options.

But when I actually started to pack, I discovered that I could fit everything I needed into my typical one-week suitcase, if I crammed all my workout clothes and toiletries into my backpack and check that. Woo hoo!
However, this also means that my wardrobe for the next two weeks is a carefully crafted color palette consisting entirely of black. I packed things that are black, things that go with black, things that have black in them, and things that are black. I went a little crazy and threw in a pair of gray pants, too. But! One suitcase! (And five pairs of shoes.)

Thank heavens it's summer or I would never have been able to accomplish this feat!

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From the Dude, Karma, What the Hell? files:

The guy who is essentially my boss for the week, the Communications Director, is hot. And, physically, reminds me a lot of an ex-boyfriend. And did I mention he's hot?

Eff.

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Someone please let Nora Ephron know she may retire, as I can take up the mantle of Writer of Embarrassing Scenes in Cheesy Romantic Comedies. Sadly, I'm not imaginative enough to make these scenes up on my own, but no matter, I have plenty of personal experience to draw upon.

Like last night, when several of us were standing around the Labor Day celebration at the county fairgrounds, talking about how beautiful our surroundings were, which then became a conversation of other picturesque places in this majestic country of ours. I mentioned Glacier National Park. Communications Director asked me about some of the other western parks, none of which I've visited, but I will, someday. No, really, I'll get there!

I pulled out my digital camera, flipped to my pictures of Glacier and handed it to Communications Director. As he admired the scenery, I began wondering what pictures were before the park (I'd started him on the last picture so he was basically taking the tour backwards). Occasionally he'd ask questions about a pic or whatever, so I knew when he was getting close to the beginning, but I still couldn't remember what preceded Glacier.

And then I saw.

Ohholymotherinheaven, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Underwear. My underwear. A picture -- no, several pictures -- of this thong my friend Kelly brought me as a souvenir from her trip to England/Ireland/Wales that reads, "Fancy A Ruck?" I thought it was hilarious, both the underwear itself and the fact that Kelly brought me underwear as a souvenir, and so I took a few pictures of it. I never got around to sharing them here or in real life, but there they sat on my camera. Fan-fucking-tastic.

I saw my underwear on the screen and calmly reached over, put my palm over the screen and took back the camera, saying brightly, "Well, I think that's enough!" He handled the whole thing quite well. I gave a brief explanation about Kelly's trip and the souvenir and ok, I'll just shut up now, there really was no way of making things any better.

So, yeah. I'm on the campaign for two hours and already I've crossed WAY OVER the line we like to call Professionalism. Awesome. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find a nice hole to crawl into.

One of the offending pictures.
Damn funny underwear...bitch set me up!