A world without lip gloss

I have a travel checklist of everything I need to travel - medications, toiletries, cables for electronics - detailed out. I even write down my outfits for each day and backup separates so I don't forget ANYTHING. Yet, despite my anal retention, I managed to forget something this trip. Lip gloss.

Now, I don't wear a lot of makeup. It was all those years of Catholic school where it was the rule that we couldn't wear anything (and the nuns would sometimes wash your face if they got cranky enough). Plus I think you look younger the more "natural" you are and I'm of an age where that's become important. But there is one thing that I just do not leave the house without having it on and that is lip gloss.

My penchant for it is so bad that it's the one makeup area where I splurge - I must have almost 15 colors or so, although I go on jags where there is only one color that I wear exclusively for about a month because I like is so much. I also change the shade of pink (because it's basically always a pink tone) depending on the season. It takes an extraordinary amount of my thought processes, but I think it's worth it. And it's not like I don't do other meaningful work in my life.

So now I'm at the Wilkes-Barre airport, embarking on an important conference that I've never been to before, and two things are running through my head. One, the Continental Airlines guy who gave me my seat assignment was nice enough to tell me there might be delays because of the rain and he reserved me a back up seat on the 5:30 flight to Ft. Lauderdale, just in case, and two, the only reason he helped me was because I was wearing the remnants of my lip gloss which I must now do without. What if I face other challenges in my travels, but I don't receive a high quality of service because of my thoughtlessness? I could have doomed myself to the snarky helper.

I'm going to look and see if I can find some colored chapstick.