My Barefoot Adventure in NYC

This week Janelle Elms took NYC by storm... (where do you think the rain came from?? She brought it all the way from Seattle for us parched East Coasters). And in her generous way, she managed to set aside one day to meet with some of her raving fanatics for lunch and chatting.

I've been a member of her OSI Rock Stars group for a year and a half now and because I didn't get to go to any of the eBay on Location, Amazon, Bonanzle, eBay Radio or ECMTA events, when she said she'd have time for a meetup with some of us locally, I knew I was going.

Now, I'm old, I have bad knees and so I dressed comfortably, changed shoes 3 times to find the ones that wouldn't bother me and would be comfortable for a day of trekking on the train and thru NY, sometimes by foot.

So, how then did I end up in NY in this lovely boutique hotel with my shoes disintegrating rapidly all over their lobby you ask? Danged if I know. The shoes were fine when I left home. Fine on the trip up on the train. Got off and starting looking for the other folks we were meeting (Oh I had a traveling companion for the train part of my trip. Kristin J Bowen-Hudson, a fellow rock star, came to my house and my husband chauffered us both to the train). As we started walking to meet the other 2 Rock Stars, Marlene Gavens and Janet Zeh so we could taxi to Janelle's hotel, my shoes started falling apart. Literally - actually - the tops seperated from the soles, right foot first. Then the rubber soles, the reason I chose to wear those, because it makes them incredibly comfortable to walk in, started distintegrating. By the time we arrived in the hotel lobby, big chunks and lots of itty bitty pieces were falling off all over the place.

First we met Wendy Siegel and got to chat with her while we waited for Janelle and then, all of a sudden, there was Janelle! Janelle met us in her lobby and while we all chatted and took pictures, the shoes kept disintegrating. I mean it's disconcerting to feel them breaking apart while you sit there...and I felt bad to be "shedding" all over this lovely lobby, the poor Door Man kept trying to sweep up the pieces and more kept falling apart. He finally gave up til I left.

Before Janelle went off to do her weekly internet radio show, Ask Janelle on www.wsradio.com (1 PM EST every Wednesday), she pointed me towards Broadway and Filene's basement and the other Rock Stars charitabily agreed to go shopping too.

Once outside on the sidewalk I realized, NO WAY were the reminients of my once comfortable Clarks going to make it two more blocks, walking.

look at the edges in the middle - where the big chunks feel off! OMG!

What's a girl too do?? Well I behaved like a bumpkin, took off the shoe parts left and walked barefoot to Filenes. 2 blocks on the sidewalks of NY. Wendy, being a native New Yorker thought I was nuts, and kept worrying that I'd lose a foot or catch something deadly before the 2 blocks were up! But I managed it and we arrived quickly at Broadway.

Where I put the rest of the shoes back on, schlepped down to the shoe dept and bought a pair of walking shoes on clearance! ($59.95 regularly - 45% off... so even my Budget Manager couldn't complain too much).

The rest of the day was spent in comfort. We ate lunch at Isabella's where for some reason, they couldn't remember that Kristin wanted COKE...not DIET COKE and catsup and they assumed that Janelle and Marlene could somehow eat soup with no spoon. The food was ok, nothing to write home about and surely not quite worth what they charged but we'll forgive them for all that for two reasons:

1 - they left us alone for 3 hours while we talked and chatted and laughed (and kept asking for COKE and Catsup)

2. they went and found me a sharpie so Janelle could autograph the SUPER Bra that Kristin is making for the BlingMyBra campaign on eBay. So Kristin's bra is now autographed by the Superwoman herself, Janelle Elms (and they were both so gracious to do that. THANK You!! You ladies ROCK!!) and thanks to Janet and Marlene for great pictures (Marlene made the owl bra last year and if you're a fan of her podcasts, The Savvy Seller or website of the same name, YOU can bid on it this year again! It's really cute!

We abandoned Janelle outside the restaurant, to grab a cab and head back to Penn Station, where Kristin and I took the NEXT train home... Thank you Kristin for the great company all the way up and back. I'm amazed by your creativity and energy!

ME?? I'm still tired but I had a good time so who cares about that. I have no incredible garnets of ecommerce intel to divulge to you from my trip except that "class shows" as my mom always said and those 5 women prove that! Next time I'll come home with "The Commandments According to Janelle" I promise. Meanwhile I'm still in awe of how smart she is and what a bundle of energy.

How are they gonna keep me down in Philly after I've seen NYC (and Janelle even scoped out a Flea Market up there for me?)...not hard, my shoes never fell apart walking in Philly..