Open Mouth - Insert BOTH Feet

This last weekend I found myself on an airplane headed to DC to see a few friends for the weekend. I usually don’t initiate contact with the person sitting next to me on the plane but rapidly pull out my book or crossword or whatever else is going to occupy my attention over the duration of the flight. Well, this flight was a little different. NOT that I initiated the contact, but I ended up sitting next to a business man in his mid-50’s who was flipping through a men’s clothing brochure/catalog he had picked up at some swanky men’s store in the airport. In the course of his flipping and pondering, and not long after I had settled in my seat, he turned the page toward me and asked my opinion on a coat he had considered buying in the store. I tried to tailor my comments to the audience, because let’s face it, he’d definitely wear different clothes than I would, and for more than one reason… obviously. I didn’t love the coat, but didn’t hate it. It looked like something he’d wear. After a short discussion, he ended up handing me the catalog and told me to show him what I liked in it.

Now we’re getting somewhere! Full reign on picking out clothes for someone else with no budget restrictions. Well, I did have a limited 20 or so page catalog to work with, but they had some decent stuff… all geared towards career men in their 40’s and 50’s. But, that fit. So, I started flipping through the catalog pointing out the things I liked, and tried to avoid the things I didn’t like. By the end, I had pointed out probably several thousand dollars of items I liked in the catalog. Good thing it was his money, not mine, and he’s a CEO of a company.

After several turns through the catalog, he ended up with it again and started looking at the belts. That was one thing I didn’t suggest because I didn’t like any of the styles they had in there. Mostly there were braided belts and metal tip belts, neither of which are really in style. And I’m not a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination but even I know that. Well, at that point I felt like I could be pretty free with my recommendations so I mentioned that if he wanted a belt he should go with the more plain style and stay away from the metal tip belts. Those were definitely not in style.

To my horror, he looked down and pulled out the end of his belt, which was nicely tipped with metal. SNAP! I felt about 2 inches tall at that point. Luckily he just laughed about it. I did get an email from him today (he sent me the concept proposal for a center he is building in honor of his daughter that died several years ago) and on the end of the email he told me he went out and already bought a new belt. Oops :)