i see london, i see france

After a morning of client meetings involving slightly raised voices and enough corporate politics to make your head spin, everything was just feeling a bit nutty. Sure, I was feeling competent, accomplished, bright(!) and altogether pretty professional, but something just felt off. I drove back into the office, sat down at my desk, stared at my computer and realized that somewhere along the line I had officially become a businesswoman. Phrases like "per our conversation" and "I just wanted to touch base on" and "sell-in strategy" roll off my tongue without a second thought. I'm drinking real coffee (instead of coffee-like beverages from Starbucks) on a pretty regular bases. If I'm away from my Blackberry for more than 20 minutes, I start to have slight anxiety attacks. I wear comfy shoes commuting to and from the office and slip into my heels when it's time for real work. Ugh. It's official.

Well fast-forward to me running to the ladies' room just a couple minutes ago. In the back of my mind I'm still thinking about this whole 'Businesswoman Liz'. Part of me is getting a sort of kick out of how far I've come. Part of me wishes I could make it stop. And then I look down to see that somewhere in between the early-morning gym and the shower and the sensible, grown-up breakfast and the final preparations on the deck for this morning's meeting I had put my underwear on inside-out! Are you kidding me? So much for being a professional adult. Last time I checked, kids learn to dress themselves around age 4.

And yet it made me think.

While professional me can take pride in the fact that I can walk the business walk and talk the business talk, real me can laugh at the fact that underneath it all I still may not have it all together. And you know what? I feel like that's just the perfect balance for me right now.