The Script Ended

alps

In my previous life my husband and I deluded ourselves into thinking that we could afford to stay in luxurious hotels. Boy those were the days........thanks in large part to the all powerful credit card.

Those days are probably long gone for me, as well as lots of other formerly conspicuous consumers. Not such a bad thing really.

But today I am in the Swiss Alps thanks to my work and my duty to develop closer relationships to alumni of my employer. This thankless task has me in a Palace on Lake Geneva facing the Swiss Alps. Needless to say, it is stunning.

Tonight I will pull on my black lace dress and enter a room full of..........complete strangers.

Even me, the consummate extrovert, is a bit intimidated to say the least. Who should I be tonight? The mysterious lone woman in the corner?

Naw - not so good for networking. How about the gregarious American party girl?

Nope again, too old and too tired and too Frenchified for that one now.

I have been on the road all week meeting people I don't know over lunch, coffee, cocktails, and around boardroom tables from London to Geneva and each time I shook hands and sat down, the words sort of flowed out of my mouth. 

So nice to meet you, thank you for taking the time, tell me about your business, world, life path, opportunities, struggles..........
I guess this is doing business, right?

Incredible really, I have been living an out of body experience all week.  I mean, who is that girl (okay okay, I'm not a girl anymore), woman in the suit with the business cards?

I guess it is me. So off to the ball I go.

Wish me luck.

Strange Reflections

Isn't it amazing how fast one can get used to something? Start out doing something that you once would have thought not possible and BOOM - it soon is almost ho-hum, part of the daily routine.

Last week I was running for my train in Jouy-en-Josas, flying over the cobbled streets of this tiny village next to my new employer. I caught a glimpse of myself in the window of the boulangerie.

Is this really me? Coat tails flapping, trying not to trip on the round stones that pave the narrow lanes, what am I doing here anyway?

Not all that long ago I spent my days on suburban asphalt....in a car. Cell phone pasted to my ear, radio blaring, on my way to pick-up, drop-off or otherwise take care of kids, Costco, Target, Nordstrom.

Never and I mean NEVER would I have expected to fast forward a couple years and see myself reflected in that French boulangerie window.

And it is all so normal now. I am one of thousands of Parisian communters. I can push and shove with the best of them down the halls of the metro and train stations, permanently in a hurry. Versailles, yes THAT Versailles, is my daily stop, where I change trains to get to Jouy-en-Josas. Where, by the way, they invented toile de jouy, the lovely fabric design that decorators add for sophistication - I should know - I used to be one of those people........

................back in another life.