One of my more embarrassing moments

Two days ago I gave a presentation at our local hospital. Doesn't sound so embarrassing. First some background so you can appreciate the mortification I am about to share.

I have been helping this hospital for the last couple of years with their Family-Centered Care Training. The organizers of the training feel that they can speak to their coworkers all day about what family-centered care means and how it should be done but the biggest impact comes from having actual patients come in and speak from personal experience. At first the training was part of the new employee orientation but this year they wanted ALL employees included. They offer the program one or two times a month but of course everyone waited until the last date of the year to attend one of these required presentations. They were expecting around 200 people. In previous trainings, they've had about 40 attendees. Three cheers for procrastination.

I frequently am asked to give the patient portion of the presentation because I can speak for myself during my prenatal experiences as well as for Caden as a pediatric patient. More bang for the buck, I suppose. However it was becoming more difficult for me to attend due to Caden's busy schedule. They've also had other presenters not show up due to weather or illness so last year they videotaped one of my presentations to have as a back-up. They've shown it close to 20 times since but thought that because this upcoming group was to be so large, it would be nice to have me in person.

The group is in fact so large that we are moved from the usual lecture room in the medical college to an auditorium at a conference center. The organizers agree to meet me at the door since I don't know my way around this building. As I approach, one of them says "And there you are in your outfit. That's the exact same outfit you wore in the video presentation we've been showing. Right down to the necklace!" Uuuuhhhhhh.... what do you say to that? Is that whooshing the sound of air being sucked from my body? I consider wearing my winter coat during my entire talk.

It's true that the only clothes I've purchased since having Caden have been from Sam's Club while picking up diapers and wipes or the consignment shop when dropping off some clothes he's outgrown. In fact, Caden has a more fashionable wardrobe than his mother. Being a stay-at-home mom, I pretty much live in sweats and jeans. I have 2 nice "adult" outfits for these presentations that aren't 100% outdated. Though the boots that I wore with this particular ensemble I've had since high school. I've had them so long that they're back in style. Yikes! I think it's time to face the ugly truth that I need to do a complete wardrobe overhaul. Or else they'll really start to wonder about me if I show up in this outfit yet again.