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Dusty Gilbert

Lifestyles Editor for BizRadio Network & Editor for skirt! Houston

Dusty Gilbert is an International Studies Graduate from the University of St. Thomas. With professional experience in print publications, the non-profit sector, website development, and the real estate industry, she is currently a writer, a local columnist, Editor of skirt! Houston Online and the...

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Rewind: Wear Your Dirty Sweat Pants (Originally Posted December 2007)

Dusty Gilbert

So, I admit it. I have known the skirt! blog was coming for months. Yet, having absolutely no experience in this medium, I have dreaded my first entry from day one. Don’t get me wrong, it was the excited kind of dread. But, dread nonetheless.

Simply stemming from a fear of where to start, today, I have officially finished procrastinating because I have found the answer. My moment of clarity? While gazing into nothingness of my office ceiling, I realized the only appropriate way to start a skirt! blog is simply at the beginning.

In July, with two weeks on the job and a rapidly approaching deadline for September’s debut issue, I found myself on a last minute trip to Charleston to meet the Founder and Publisher, Nikki Hardin, and the national team.  

After a frantic rush to the airport, I boarded a plane to sit idle on the runway for two hours. A prisoner between the window and a man with the most obtrusive body odor on the planet, I tried to ignore the cries of my stomach reminding me of forgotten sustenance. After missing my connection and a total of 12 hours in travel time, I made it to Charleston at 10:30 pm. Did I mention they lost my luggage?

Well, I told you it was a last minute trip, but it was also a quick one. Scheduled to depart Charleston at 5:00 pm the next day, the room for schedule flexibility was nonexistent. With no luggage, toothbrush, conditioner, clothes or energy, I loaded an empty shuttle to my hotel. I was certainly not “so skirt” in my now filthy sweatpants (originally put on at 5:30 am) and creeping mascara highlighting the bags under my eyes.

In the shuttle, I pleaded with the driver to tell me where I could buy some clothes and toiletries to prepare for my 8:00 am meeting. But, seeming to gloat in his role as the barer of bad news, he boasted, “Walmart is the only thing open now. And, that cab ride will cost you time and money.” Tired and distressed, I fled through the doors of my hotel to seek refuge.

After fighting my way through the crowd of wandering convention goers, I made it to the front desk only to discover the hotel knew nothing of my prepaid reservation. As the words rolled off the lips of the pleasant man behind the front desk, I could not control the hint of tears that began to slip from the corners of my eyes. At that particular moment, I was miserable.

Close to midnight, I was finally given a room to sleep away the events of the day.

Although I had convinced myself of its impossibility, at 6:00 am the next morning my luggage arrived. With no trace of my previously horrendous self, I walked down the charming streets of Charleston in route to skirt! With each step, the severity of my personal “Apocalypse” seemed slightly diminished.

Yet, feeling only halfway confident, I entered the skirt! abode to find a wonderfully comfortable loft space that spewed with creativity. Just beyond a mannequin dressed in a fashionable styling of skirt! pages, stood a woman. Feet adorned with worn Birkenstocks and comfortably dressed in shorts, Nikki Hardin taught me a lesson with her kindness and free spirit.

Sometimes, Mercury is just in Retrograde. So, no matter what happens… just get over it! Wear your dirty sweat pants if you have to (or if you want to), chances are it will work out just fine. And, if not now, it will sometime.