business classless.

I was full of my own importance as I walked from the south parking lot of the Greensboro airport Thursday afternoon, carrying a sensible brown bag containing the company laptop, important business papers, a stack of my business cards, and two fresh, clean notepads. By the time I made it to Gate 44 to sit and wait for my flight, I was already tired of being a business woman, because the things they had to carry were heavy.

Everywhere that I carried the laptop, I was intensely aware of it. Not just because it was heavy, though it was, but because it made me feel very grown-up. Who cares if I was in jeans or if I drank milk instead of coffee at the continental breakfast? I was a business woman and I was on a business trip. Don't believe me? Here's my card. Lookit, that's my name.

Saturday afternoon, I lugged my business woman bag back to the rental car and dumped it in the passenger seat. Something was stuck to the bottom of the bag, a big white blobby something. My business woman pride immediately deflated. I had gotten something on the company's bag, and worse yet, I had gotten bubble gum on the company's bag. The day before, I had chewed some gum after lunch. Then when I was done with the gum, I had put it in the thick paper nametag they gave me at the client's office. But the paper was so thick that it wouldn't stay folded around the gum, and apparently, I had put the bag down on top of it.

This...this, well, this is exactly the kind of thing that would happen to me. I'm a trifle klutzy, so it wasn't a huge surprise that I got something on the bag. But why couldn't it have been something grown-up, like lipstick or coffee? I mean, I don't wear lipstick and I've quit drinking coffee, but that's not the point! Why did it have to be bubble gum? Why did I have to get the gum out of a bright red gumball machine when I had gone out to lunch on the company's dime? Why do I still get gumballs out of bright red machines?

Oh well. Being a business woman's not that cool anyway. They have heavy stuff.