Trouble at the top: My own private car crisis

Guest Post by Cindy DiPietrantonio, Chief Operations Officer, Jones Apparel Group

You can only imagine how I was feeling last week when I came home from the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Inspired. Empowered. After three days in Washington, D.C., where we heard from Hillary Clinton, CEOs like Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo (PEP) and Carol Bartz of Yahoo (YHOO), Warren Buffett (BRKA), and even the President of the United States, I was feeling practically invincible.

After the Summit, I took the train back home to Philadelphia. You won't believe what happened when I arrived at 30th Street Station.

I can't find my car.

So I walk all six floor in the garage with my luggage, black bag with

all my heavy files, heels and a hot pink yoga mat that I had gotten at the Summit.

No car.

I walk ALL six floors again with my luggage, black bag with all my heavy

files, heels and the hot pink yoga mat.

No car.

So I go to security and explain my issue. Velma, the security guard on duty, offers to search the garage with me, and when I ask if I can leave my stuff while we do that, she says "Not if you want to see it when you get back."

Okay. So Velma walks me all six floors with my luggage, black bag with all my heavy files, heels and the hot pink yoga mat.

No car. (By the way, Velma was eyeing my hot pink yoga mat.)

Velma calls Tyrone, her manager. Tyrone comes and tells me that people are always losing their cars because they think they drove up the ramp when they really drove down the ramp. He repeats this point as he drives me up and down the ramps in his 1972 Chevrolet with his muffler dragging and...

No car.

So we call the police and report it stolen. Now I am upset but being cool about it, even though my car, a 2010 BMW 550 GT, is seven months old and has my razzle-dazzle camera with my expensive lens in the trunk and I feel invaded.

This is my first big girl car (no more Mom SUV).

Two hours and lots of paperwork later, I call my husband, Dominic. I didn't want to get him concerned.

I tell Dominic the bad news, and what does he tell me? My car is in the driveway. Because, he reminds me, I got dropped off at the station.

So I went back to Velma and Tyrone and told them, in a whisper, my mistake. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I had just come from the Most Powerful Women Summit.

Cindy DiPietrantonio is Chief Operations Officer at Jones Apparel Group (JNY)