I purchased the coat, which definitely falls in the category of business dress, knowing that it would be infrequent that I would wear it. Prior to yesterday, I had worn it only to a graveside service on a very cold day. Yesterday, for the second time in the coat’s history, I was glad to be wearing it.
Follow a morning meeting on the Hill, a colleague invited me to lunch with he and another colleague at the City Club. I declined due to another scheduled meeting. He said, if you can be there by 11:30, plan to join me and bring the person with whom you are meeting. The person I was meeting with was another board member.
As we exited the Hart Senate Building, he and the other colleague hailed a cab to take them to the restaurant, while I opted to walk toward Union Station for my next meeting. In the years that I’ve been traveling to D.C. on business, I have only opted to take a cab one time. When it comes to transportation, some folks would describe me as “so tight that I squeak when I walk”. I figure a $10 cab ride can be replaced with a little walking and a $2 ride on the Metro. I am good with that.
Actually, the one time I had hailed a cab, I did so at the insistence of the colleague and friend who took the cab yesterday morning. Interestingly, my cab ride followed my falling on my face on the escalator at Union Station. At the time, the escalator was not working and we were descending underground to catch the Metro. I was with a group of board members headed to another location for our board meeting. We all had been on Capitol Hill trying to make a difference.
I would have been embarrassed beyond belief by my awkward descent had it not been for the incredible pain associated with the fall. When I say, I fell on my face, I’m not kidding. That was a day that I definitely fell into the category of “rode hard and put up wet”. The staff person at the Metro wanted to call an ambulance. If I’m too frugal to take a cab, you can rest assured I declined the ride in an ambulance. I responded: “I’ve already paid to ride the Metro, I don’t need an ambulance.”
When our group got to the location of the Board meeting following my fall, folks in the group were insistent that I go see a doctor. My friend insisted he was going to accompany me. I was looking for the Uber app on my iPhone when my friend said: “Put that away, we are taking a cab”. That was my first and only cab ride in Washington.
Our board meeting yesterday was on the 9thfloor of a really nice office building. It is the virtual office where we do our business in D.C. The building is filled with floor to ceiling windows and one can see the outside from any number of points in the building. Prior to our beginning the building, the office staff communicated that they would be leaving at 3:00 p.m. All of the offices were closing in anticipation of the snow. In fact, schools were letting out at 3:00 as well.
Subsequently, the sight of snow falling was very picturesque. One of the last agenda items was my performance evaluation as the executive director. Folks were very kind in my appraisal and I definitely felt both humbled and grateful.
As we were leaving the building, the two friends and colleagues that I had been with on the Hill that morning, invited me to take a cab with them to the hotel where they were staying. It was near my hotel. It gave the three of us time to visit in the lobby of their hotel.
In the process of visiting, my long time friend and colleague were reminiscing about a time we previously worked in the same organization. As it turns out, so did the other person. I had no idea. When I worked for the organization, I was the compliance officer and I traveled to all twenty-five locations of the agency through out Texas. She worked at one of those locations.
I had absolutely no memory that she, too, had been an employee. She wasn’t one of the people with whom I regularly interacted. She said something closely akin to: “I remember the first time you came to assess our compliance. You were really tough!”
I was absolutely shocked! I left that position eighteen-years-ago. I’d prefer to think I was thorough rather than tough, but I can see how the two perceptions could both be equally true.
Of course, I awakened this morning to the recognition that Government offices are opening three hours late today because of the weather. That means three scheduled meetings for the morning aren’t going to happen. In addition, it is a great day to simply stay in bed a while longer. I’ve already messed that up.
All My Best!
Don