Friday, October 21, 2011

A Day in the Life of Matilda OR Um, you've got a thing there...

This is a little story about a friend of mine.  Let's call her Matilda.  Yea, Matilda.  That's her name.

Now Matilda has a full life.  Lately, maybe it's a little too full.  She working full time, she's got a little freelance gig on the side filling in some extra hours, and she's rarely seen sitting down, what with all the kids running around, and that shoe she lives in to keep clean.  How does a busy mom, do it?

Anyway, she's somehow figured out how to keep it all together.  So she wakes up one morning during this crazy week, and checks her calendar.  A meeting at a client's office, followed by two phone interviews and a face-to-face (she's looking to hire some help at the full time job).  She's also volunteered to head up an auction at one child's school and needs to make some related calls, work on a client project, and finish up a company blog post.

A busy day.  But first...what to wear?  Matilda feels good when she looks good - don't we all?  So she goes through the morning routine and chooses a great outfit.  Great skirt, white tailored blouse, tall boots and tops it off with a great new shawl she bought a few weeks ago but hasn't worn yet.

But I digress.  Matilda gets all those kids out the shoe and to their respective schools, and heads to the client's office.  Arrives five minutes early (great start!) and hops out of her car, grabs her briefcase and struts, heels clicking importantly, towards the front door.  She catches a glimpse of herself in the mirrored walls of the building and smiles (not bad!), before throwing the door wide and heading inside.  She's greeted warmly by the receptionist and notices two gentlemen in the lobby, who glance her way.  One of them does a double take, his eyes lingering.  Matilda ignores this, of course, signs in at the front desk and turns to take a seat.
"Excuse me," the man with the eyes says to her.
She stops and turns, smiling.
He gestures with his right hand behind his neck, "you've got a, ah, a thing..." he trails off.
A thing?
"Oh?" she says, unsure.
"Um, a price tag," he explains, tapping his neck again, "um, it's hanging out."

Now, Matilda's self-importance comes to a screeching halt as she reaches behind her neck and feels the tag, with the sale sticker, hanging proudly in full view.
The receptionist smiles and offers scissors.

As it turns out, these two gentlemen are there for the same meeting.  Matilda can't quite remember what she said to them once the tag was removed, but it was, of course, very clever.

As it turns out, this was one of the best moments of this very busy, sometimes difficult, oftentimes stressful week.  For Matilda, that is.

Ever had a moment like Matilda's?  Go ahead...share it, it'll make me, um, I mean her, feel better.

7 comments:

  1. Please tell Matilda that one time a friend of mine named Sharon had a mishap with her bra. All of a sudden, I--I mean Sharon--felt something spring up and suface out of the top of my--oops, wrong again--Sharon's blouse. One of the underwires had dug its way out of the bra and was poking out for all to see.

    I hope Matilda's weekend is better...

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  2. Sioux...I'll let her know...thank you ; ) And thank goodness for our WWW (Wednesday Writing Women...how many of these do you think we can come up with!)...it was the absolute highlight of my week!!!

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  3. Sharon and Matilda, next thing you know they'll be running tabloid stories on them too.

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  4. If you appeared at the Grand Ole' Oprey, you'd be a hit! Minnie Pearl (I'm sure you don't know who that is!)wore her tag on her hat for years and appeared on that stage wearing it just that way. It became her trademark. Maybe, you should try it:)

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  5. Better than discovering the tag on your own at the end of the day and realizing everyone saw it all day long and no one told y...her.

    I once had a student tell me my blouse was unbuttoned. This, as I stood in front of a classroom full of teenagers. Oh, and I've had dryer sheets fall out of my clothes in front of entire classrooms as well. Or worse, they'll stay bunched up in places where large bulges are just so wrong.

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  6. Linda...I feel a new post from Sioux coming on...
    Mom...this guy actually mentioned Minne Pearl and told me I was probably too young to know who she is, too (so nice!)...but I do remember her...and the tag on her hat.
    Tammy...so true. I've had the dryer sheet problem, too. At least you smell fresh and clean all day ; )

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  7. It's a menopause moment - there's no doubt I've had some moments as Matilda - I just can't remember. But I had kind of a different type of Matilda moment when I looked at picture of myself (from this past trip), horrified at the rolls I observed. It's too bad I didn't get a glimpse in some kind of mirrored something or another to realize not to wear that shirt! Unless I'm standing.

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