When life hands you cucumber soup...

The best thing that happened to me last week was getting cucumber soup spilled all over my dress. 

Let me explain. 

I was at the ILEA Live summit and awards luncheon, sitting at a center table that was in a high traffic area. A few people were having trouble getting by, and then a nice lady full of energy came up to say h... 

*BUMP*

*SLOP* 

"OH. NO!"

My cucumber soup in a champagne glass (agreed, questionable choice by the catering team) fell into my lap...

... and onto the only dress that I had with me on this 24 hour trip to speak in Minneapolis - and in the next session.

Beyond shock, I went straight into Plan B mode. There was kind of nothing I could do about it, but be cool.

"Lucky for me, I wore the right dress." I joked, "Now I both look AND smell like spring." 

I felt bad for the lady who spilled on me and hung out at the table until she had a chance to hurry away and be replaced by the catering team fixing the table. I went to the restroom, cleaned up, and sat back down to finish eating and watch the awards luncheon. 

The final award, for Volunteer of the Year, went to someone that sounded like such a good person. She gives up her time generously to promote education and positivity in the events industry worldwide. When asked about how her day is going, she beams and talks about all the wonderful people in her life - not about herself. I wanted to be..... THAT LADY! No way. Omg, so hilarious and ironic. The person I might have admired the most in the room, TIFFANIE ROSIER, had just ruined my dress with cucumber soup a few minutes ago.

Cut to: My panel, less than an hour after Tiffanie wins her Volunteer of the Year award.

I'm sitting up on stage in my cucumber dress, doing my best to stay present and represent Happily while next to these really polished panelists from Microsoft and HBO. I do what I can to share everything I know about creativity and teamwork with my fellow event industry peeps. Forget the cucumber dress.

Q&A comes up. 

And there is that lady again. 

Is she... omg. No. is she telling everyone about what happened?! 

She is. 

If I wasn't too embarrassed before, I was now - everyone in that room now knows about my cucumber soup dress.

I get over it, as I hear Tiffanie being so generous with her words and recollection of her side of the story, and she asks how I stay graceful under pressure.

It was a really funny, special moment. 

I got to tell her that I thought to myself how funny it was to me when she won Volunteer of the Year award; to recognize her again for her award (because volunteers can NEVER be thanked enough); that my middle name is actually Grace; and to reassure her that spilling cucumber soup could have happened to anyone.

And I was happy, this time, it happened to me.