Sometimes it pays to be late?

I tell you some days are just a study in frustration...Last Thursday, was one of those days...I knew for most of the week that I had a very special reception to attend and it was not quite after work...the plan was to leave work a little early. Of course, as Murphy would have it, that day was the busiest of the week and there was no way that particular plan was going to come to fruition...Well, I thought, that's OK I'm not that far away...My trusty GPS will zip me right over there and all will be well...

Now let me just tell you that the event that I was headed for was, indeed, a special one. Komen Maryland was holding a small reception to honor the founder and CEO of Susan G Komen for the Cure, Ambassador Nancy G Brinker. She was in town and we were taking the opportunity to meet with her and honor her and she in turn, was to say a few things and sign copies of her new book, "Promise Me". The event was not open to the general public and not one to be missed...

Being the generally forward thinking and prepared person that I am, when I went on break in the morning, I grabbed my Blackberry and opened up the application, VZNavigator. I typed in the address of the venue, the Ritz Carlton. So far so good...Oh wait...before I could do that I was prompted that there was an upgrade and so I did that...yes, I know...so I upgrade and reboot...and reboot...and reboot...are you getting the picture? for some reason lately, whenever I need to do a reboot, my BB has been taking it upon itself to just continually reboot itself into infinity! So I proceed to pull the battery in order to do a hard reboot...no go...this goes on for quite a while, until in fact, my break is over.

I return to work with my phone, sans battery, in my pocket...This, by the way is against company policy. I am now in potential trouble!! A while later I remember the phone and put it back together. I stick it in an office to charge.

Much later in the day, I head to lunch...I investigate the new and improved VZNavigator...Hey cool! I can link to Face book and give my location and a few other cool things...but first things first...I type in the location of the Ritz Carlton downtown and ask it to navigate...it searches for my GPS location...and searches...and searches...Well, to finally get to the point here, the damn thing never does find it, oh wait, once, it does...I get  a very quick look at the route! Because, yes, you guessed it, it is time to return to work!

Now, just a quick note here, if the website had had written directions I would have printed them, but they did not...and I did not have time to look them up...

So the end of the day comes and I quickly change and try to become my lovely evening self...I get in the car, I have assumed that the lack of GPS was due to the being in the building...now I am assuming it is due to being in the garage...I don't know what to blame it on as I become lost in Baltimore city! I am becoming frantic...Not because I am lost...I can at any time, get myself home! I cannot, however, even begin to get myself to the Ritz Carlton!! So I called them...they really were no help...So I called my husband, he was still at work, but he and 2 of his co-workers came through for me...I have an over head Bluetooth. Michelle brought up MapQuest and they talked me through Baltimore City and over to the Event! They have since been properly thanked.

I pull up to the RC and get out(valet parking) People are already leaving...the reception was to last only 2 hours...I rush though the doors to the lobby...they call for an escort...I wait...as I wait Nancy Brinker comes down with her escorts and goes into the bathroom...she is leaving...I look at the gentleman from the RC escorting her out,,,I say to him, "will she mind if I speak to her?" He shakes his head and tells me very kindly that he does not think so...As I wait, another rushes in late and up to me...I explain the situation to her and she waits with me. Ambassador Brinker comes out and heads for the door...We ambush her and she is very gracious...I am low key and explain to her that we are late and just want to introduce ourselves to her and thank her for coming, etc. However, JoAnne, my partner in crime, does not leave it at that, she proceeds to enumerate my many doings for Komen MD and National and Ms. Brinker leans over and engages me and wants to know what years I was race chair. I answer her and we speak for a few more minutes. She then tells us that she has left extra signed copes of her book upstairs and to make sure we get one.

As I turn around the nice gentleman from the RC says to me, you just got to spend more time with her than anyone upstairs did! Unbelievable! We proceed upstairs to find that my friends have done something very special...they have a book for me. They saw that I was not there and they asked Ms. Brinker to sign one for me and it is personalized...That is special...I have no words...Although I do admit to seeing plenty here on the page...

By the time I left I had a raging migraine, I am prone to them and this was just too much...Earlier in the day I had decided that the hair must go and I was determined to stop at Haircuttery on the way home and get it chopped off. So, after an hour on 83...I did...The hair washing helped the migraine...the RX did only a partial job...rush hour on 83 did not help...I don't know how people do that ever day!

Oh, the valet parking? When I went to get my car, it was still out front...I was so late they did not park it...I had joked while upstairs that they didn't need to...hmmm...while three of us were peeking in the windows of my SUV to see what gift had been left in there (you see, they told us there would be one) the doorman came up behind us...we turned around to see him holding the gift...we are such a class act...lol...

The GPS???Oh that is still on the fritz...that upgrade really messed things up..As a perfect end to a perfect day, I called Verizon wireless at around 10:00 pm that night...we ended up putting in a ticket...you know, a ticket...still waiting for a fix...it is Saturday...he suggested using Map Quest for Mobile in the meantime...one problem, the GPS locator on the phone does not work for that either...boy the upgrade was a thing of wonder...oh, and for those of you thinking, well just go back to the prior version...no can do...thought of that...

Anyway, an awesome opportunity was not lost thanks to a couple of people that my husband works with and my own persistence...I mean 2 more minutes, one more wrong turn and she would have been gone.

That is one amazing women...Ambassador Nancy G Brinker, all she has accomplished and all of it stemmed from a promise that she made to her sister as her sister lay dying of breast cancer...The power of a promise!

Promise Me: Read it!