This Monday, I had the opportunity to fly to Cincinnati to attend the Tide/Downy Fabric Care University and visit some friends and make some new ones as part of an event sponsored by Proctor & Gamble. Over the course of the two days in Cincinnati, we got to see the Proctor & Gamble archives (including John Wayne’s HAIR, y’all!), and learn about the history of many of the P&G brands.

One of the things I had been looking forward to with the event Monday evening – and when we arrived, we were assigned to teams and challenged to take a plain white tee-shirt and a bag of extra doodads (think: paint, zippers, glue, buttons, and the like) and create an “innvative design”  a la Project Runway. Oh, and uh… Tim Gunn was one of the judges.

Challenging us and encouraging us to “make it work” as we scrambled for a half hour, he provided feedback just as he does on the show (including tell our group at one point, “You don’t HAVE to use everything in the bag!” Okay, guess we’ll edit!). In the end we didn’t win, but our shirt exhibited our style philosophy of “Playground Elegance”. This challenge was definitely a difficult one – though I’m in love with Project Runway, I’m sort of not very fashionable.

That shirt features a lovely zippered v-neck which allows you to take the shirt from day to night with just a swipe of your zipper, revealing an elegant peek of lace just beneath. Gosh. I don’t know why we didn’t win (Except the winning team’s shirt? WAY awesome).

We then got to mingle with each other and with Mr Gunn (or TG, as Jenny calls him) – including getting our picture snapped with him.

I, of course, am NOT looking in the right direction, which I assure you is totally par for the course with me. Oh well! This event was amazingly well thought-out, the space was gorgeous (it took place in a downtown Cinci art gallery), the hors d’oeuvres were fab (BTW – I spelled “hors d’oeuvres” right on the first try – can I get a whoohoo?!), and the desserts were phenomenal. I had a lot of dessert. Lots. Yum.

After an evening I can only describe as surreal (in the BEST possible way), we returned to our hotel.

The next day? Fabric Care University!

The Proctor & Gamble peeps are awesome and taught us a lot of amazing things – mostly that I have been doing laundry ALL WRONG for the past 15 years or so.  Whoopsie? Also interesting to note is that while I felt like I was one of the last people on the planet with one of those archaic top loading washing machines… I’M NOT! (Brief survey – what kind do you have? Please don’t tell me that you all have those fancy front loading machines that I want so badly!).

I finally learned what the difference is between all those different bottles of Tide on the shelf are. I’ll be checking out the Tide with Bleach alternative – my current laundry pet peeve is whites that look yucky. “Yucky” is not the technical term, mind you. Also hadn’t realized that there are formulations for the special materials used in modern day workout clothes especially tailored for those special designed fibers.

We were all shocked to learn about all the… uh… “matter” that remains on your clothes after a day of wear (and be oh so grateful that I’m leaving it as matter, because the actual terminology of all that stuff your body produces that ends up on your clothes is enough to turn almost anyone into a germophobe!). I’m going to blame that “matter” for why I weigh so much more when the day is over. I’m not heavy, I’m just carrying around dead skin cells.

It was an incredibly informative AND FUN event, and I look forward to sharing more of what I learned in the future. Yeah! I’m gonna talk laundry with you. And maybe I’ll try doing my wash the right way and see how it works. And, I may just go to the store and do a Tide smell test (yes, I pick detergent based largely on its scent. I’m weird).

Disclosure: I was provided with airfare and hotel accomodation for this trip, but the opinions expressed are my 0wn, as always.