I commute to work three times a week. On Mondays, I drive in with my clothes and lunch items for the week. I ride Tuesday, Wednesday and Thrursday, then drive in on Friday to cart home the dirty laundry and whatever.

Today (Tuesday) was my first ride in for the week. I got myself all showered and feeling good, then went to get myself dressed. No pants. Apparently, I overlooked packing pants! I had everything else, but NO PANTS! I was mortified.

Fortunately, my wife works close enough to me that bringing by some pants wasn't a huge deal. What sucked was having to put my sweaty cycling clothes back on and sitting in them until she arrived! Oh well, I bet I pay more attention to what I'm doing next week!

Mark

That's one of the reasons why, when I started riding my Giant to work last year, I got a set of panniers: the work clothes are packed the night before the commute, and I check the panniers just before I leave in the morning.

A second reason was even if I put the dirty clothes in a plastic garbage bag to take home at the end the week, my office STILL smelled like a high school boy's locker room.

You know, I've tried to come up with a witty comeback to that story, but a True Confession like that simply cannot be topped. HOWEVER:

-What, no pictures?

-Next you'll be telling us you showed up for a test you didn't study for...

-In certain circles, "Packing your pants" refers to what very, very firghtened people do

-Could have been worse, it could have been the other way around.

-I can only hope your wife had the good sense to dredge up the most 1974-hideous pair of plaid bell-bottoms she could find to bring to you...

Semi-seriously, though, where I work sitting around in sweaty cycling clothes is not an option - the entire plant is refrigerated (38-42 degrees F), and sitting around in sweaty clothes is just begging for hypothermia.

I did something similar a couple of months ago. I had gone over to the east coast to ride with some people I had met on line. We had a nice ride but I had to be at work at 3 pm. I had packed a change of clothes and had planned on stopping by my parents house to shower and change before work, they live on the coast and are fairly close to where I work. After I got out of the shower I realized that I had not packed a shirt. I had no time to go home and get one and my father is quite a bit smaller than I am so I couldn't borrow one of his. I washed out my jersey in the sink, it was a bright orange solid color made of quick dry nylon, threw it in the dryer for a few minutes and wore it to work. I still catch crap from some of my technicians about that shirt, months later.

I believe this was the first time I've forgotten something so important.. Alls well that ends well.

Mark

Luckily, if I ever forget an important item of clothing, I'll just take a shower at the gym, put my bike clothes back on, and hide out in the server room all day.

When 4:00 PM arrives, I'll just sneak out, lock the door, and split!