and this is where the bike veered off the road.

I just survived my second week back at Agency X. The old cliché holds true, it truly has been like riding a bike. I'm back in my comfort zone, I had a few of those, "I still GOT IT!" moments, and people are actually listening to me. The bike ride was going really well.

And then, this phone call happened.

It looks like I will be traveling for the first time at the end of the month. I'm headed to the West Coast for some 'brand immersion' meetings. (I LOVE when clients give meetings ridiculous names, like 'Operation Thunderbolt' and 'Meeting of the Minds'. I definitely missed that.)

I am attending these meetings with an account person from one of our other offices whom I've never met.

We were on a call and she was downloading me, and then things got weird.

KK: "So I'll book my flights and share my itinerary with you, and you do the same."

ACCOUNT PERSON: "Will do. I'm so happy you're going with me."

I thought this was nice, considering she's never met me. Perhaps she heard wonderful things?

(Pause)

AP: "So, you DO know I had a brain aneurysm in May, right?"

Oh, so that's how this conversation is going to go???

KK: "Oh! Um, wow. No! No, I didn't."

AP: "Yes. I almost died. I had a brain aneurysm, slipped into a coma and almost died. I just came back to work a few months ago."

KK: "Well, are YOU okay to fly?"

AR: "I don't know. We'll see. That's why I'm glad you're going to be there, just in case anything happens to me."

Hmm. Last I checked, during my hiatus from Agency X, I didn't obtain a medical degree.

I don't even watch Grey's Anatomy.

KK: "Sure thing! I'm great in emergency situations!"

I am? Since when??? I've never been in a emergency situation! (knock on wood)

If there was any part of me that didn't want to go on this trip before this conversation (and there was - I'll be gone for a week, I'm flying the red-eye home, I'm going by myself), it has only been magnified by this very conversation.

By a million.