Lilly Pulitzer for the Monday
Manolo says, it is Monday, and you are not at at your desk slaving away.
You are not at your desk for the very good reason that you have become that most pitiable of peoples, the business traveler; the pilgrim of commerce, outbound to your corporation’s North-East-Central regional office in the beautiful, lakeside vacation city of Erie, Pennsylvania! (Just like Lake Como, only with more soot!)
But before you can do your business and then retire for the evening to enjoy the homey comforts of the Airport Suites Inn, (Ice! Free waffles! The coffeemaker in the bathroom!) you must first do battle with the American air transportation system.
It starts with the indignity of the security checkpoint, where your reinforced foundation garments repeatedly set off the metal detectors, the delay which nearly causes you to miss your flight to Altoona.
Altoona? Yes, who knew that the cheapest connection to Erie from LaGuardia involved the plane changes at Altoona and Atlanta (in that order), with the final leg into Erie on Belavia, the national airline of Belarus, which, at least unlike the American airlines, offers you the free inflight drink and snack, even if it is the shot of vodka from the communal glass and pickled smelts from the big jar.
Luckily, and perhaps it is the vodka, but everyone on Belavia seemed so nice, including the pilots, who halfway through the flight (during the group sing-a-long) came back into the cabin and did the little cossack dance, which is again unlike the American carriers where everyone is tetchy and surly, and the flight attendants bark orders at small children and nursing mothers.
And now it is nearly 2 pm, and after ten hours of flying, you are sitting in the coffee shop near the Erie International Airport, killing the few minutes on the internet before you must make your triumphant appearance in the regional office.
Oh, how you wish you were going away on permanent vacation, to the islands, where you could shuck your constricting business clothes. On the resort beach in your dreams, you could wear the bikini (well, maybe the tankini) with the colorful coverup wrap and the beautiful resort sandals, perhaps like these, the Petal Pushers from Lilly Pulitzer.
Now that would be travelling in style!
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Comments
Lauren 16 years ago
I have been to the Altoona airport. I refuse to believe there are any connecting flights through there! In driving there I – and I swear this is true – got stuck behind an Amish horse-and-buggy on the ‘highway’ right before the airport entrance.
Nice shoes, though.
crispy 16 years ago
My mother is fully obsessed with flats and sandals (flat sandals) and I think she would just adore the petal pushers. So I think now I must get her a pair!
andyshoes 16 years ago
Well done Manolo!
You have captured the very essence of business travel. I will carry a mental image of these beautiful sandals as I head out on a 2-week business excursion where, sadly, the number of shoes I can bring is limited.
Chaser 16 years ago
Oh, man, you mean you can get pickled smelts on some airlines??? I am totally getting ripped off.
I’m getting these, period.
Phyllis 16 years ago
I’m laughing so hard I need oxygen…
raincoaster 16 years ago
Ah, the pickled smelts and vodka of the Belarusian airlines! You bring back to many memories for me! As a young child I lived in Winterpeg, and the cabbage rolls served on Air Canada flights out of the city were a key component of the fuel conservation and buoyancy strategy, given that they’d be gradually converted into methane during the course of the flight.
How many fun, oxygen-deprived folk dances I’ve shared with flight attendants in and out of Winterpeg over the years. Cossack squats in zero g are quite the sight to behold, I’m telling you.
Christine 16 years ago
I was recently on a SkyEurope flight where the pilot actually did come back into the cabin to join us poor passengers. I wasn’t treated to a Cossack dance (not sure if that particular cultural idiom translates from Russian culture to Slovak culture), but I did find it amusing that the pilot plopped down in a seat in about the third row and started chatting with a passenger.
There’s something to be said for Eastern European airlines!
valawhoo 16 years ago
Dear Manolo:
Please stop reading my mind.
Thank you.
Robyn Marie 16 years ago
Steve Madden does a few really cute flat sandals called the Sannibel and the Acuzar that would also be perfect for travel, the gold color is my fav.
belle 16 years ago
brilliant…absolutely brilliant.
Last month for my trip to Spain I flew US Air….first class.
It was so bad for so many reasons. I would have preferred Belavia.