Hectic June

This has been an insanely hectic month. First of all for all those interested I now have my new home! I closed on the 11th on this month and received my keys the following Friday. That weekend I went shopping for furniture and have already purchased my new living room and bedroom set. What is the best part is that I did not comprise on anything and chose everything to my liking. The furniture will be delivered this weekend while I am away. Fortunately my sister said she would be willing to accept the delivery on my behalf.

The second factor to this maddening month is all the traveling I had to do this month. Some were for fun, some for business, all in all enjoyable even though there were hiccups here and there. My first June trip was a weekend road-trip to Wisconsin Dells. I took off a Friday from work and headed with my family to enjoy some relaxation and fun at the Dells water parks. The hotel had very nice spa facilities which helped ease my stress away. Upon my return to work the next day I had to fly out to a conference in San Jose. It was very informative but because of flight delays stressed me out again. Today will be a trip for leisure towards the east coast and I hope I can kill some of the stress with my friends.

The Cicada Run-In

My encounter with a cicada was not how I expected. I think it was last week when I drove by a major avenue on the SW-side suburb of Countryside which edged a forest preserve. I rolled down the window a bit and was amazed to hear how loud the cicadas were. I took a turn into a smaller street and heard their distinct sound even more loudly. I contemplated pulling over and heading near the trees to get a good luck and perhaps getting a pic via my phone of these ugly looking creatures. I've seen a few pictures already and was tempted on snapping a few of my own. Had I not been running a few minutes late for meeting my friend for a movie I'm sure I would have ventured closer.

This weekend a cicada came to me - UNWANTED!! My sister and I decided to grab some breakfast at Bakers Square in La Grange this Saturday. Located minutes away from the same forest preserve I drove by weeks before, cicadas were nearby as well. I even recall mentioning to my sister to pause a bit to listen how loudly they were. She acknowledge and we headed indoors. The waiter showed us to our table and I thought I heard what sounded like a chirp. I sat down and heard it again, the waiter was leaving, when it sounded again and I asked what that noise was, as it seemed to be coming from a nearby plant directly behind my booth. The waiter shook the basket planter, to my plead not to drop what ever it was on me since I was still sitting below. We heard it again and this time is sounded as if it was sitting next to me. I quickly stood up and looked for it. The thing chirped again, this time the sound came from ME!!!!!!

"Oh my goodness oh my goodness, get it off of me, please get it off" I quietly pleaded with my sister and waiter. They couldn't' see it and I did not want to move an inch. Frankly I didn't want to see it. My sister thought it could be in my shirt hood, and suggested I go into the bathroom and see if I could get it out. I saw a few people just stare at me, but I wanted merely to be free of the bug, who's chirp I now heard near my ear.

Sure enough I went into the bathroom stall, flickered off my shirt trying so desperately not to come in contact with it. EEEEEEEeek!!! There it now was on the bathroom floor. I had brought in the cicada. I let the waiter take it out. I saw the look of many other clients and waitstaff just looking to see my reaction. my sister told me how amazed they were that I took it so well. My sister said she would have been screaming and causing much more of a scene. It was creepy, but I can admit - I think it was pretty damn funny.

LAX Delay - It Figures!

In an earlier post entry about two hours ago, while riding on a plane from San Jose to Los Angeles, I wrote that I hoped my flight was not delayed. It’s as if I was begging for the contrary, because sure enough my flight is delayed again. This time it’s worse than my flight delay from Chicago to San Jose. On my way to the west coast my flight was delayed a little over two hours this time the flight delay is of an already extended hour and a half extra to an additional four and a half hours. My total flight time frame will now be ten hours. My flight was supposed to depart from LAX at 5:15pm it will now depart at 9:20pm. It’s not so much that the flight was delayed it self, apparently the aircraft that we were supposed to travel on is now out of service. The airline needed to find another aircraft and one will not be available until two hours from now, but will not depart until an additional two hours after that.

My choices were to either wait it out here and receive the meal voucher the airline was providing or work with the attendant and find another flight for tomorrow afternoon. I seriously considered staying for many minutes. I was planning on getting the airline to provide me hotel vouchers and planned out what time I would need a ride back tomorrow night from Chicago. I overheard someone getting the earliest available time flight of 2:30pm. For me that meant that I would probably arrive at O’Hare at a little past seven at night. I wondered if I could dial in to any of the meetings I am scheduled for tomorrow. I decided not to risk another chance of having my flight delayed or canceled tomorrow. I have too much work to catch up and in addition I have a final walk through for my home on Saturday.

I will stick it out and hang out in the LAX airport for a while. I scammed myself another food voucher, I know $10 isn’t really enough for the expensive food that is served here, even for the fast food restaurants. Sure enough my total from Chili’s restaurant was over $15, to bad I couldn’t leave the rest as tip. I left a few bucks out of my own pocket, and felt pretty good for having thought forward to get that other voucher. The only thing that is making passing time a bit more bearable is being able to surf the net. I opted to purchase the T-mobile hotspot access and here I am writing this post and uploading my previous post I had written on notepad.

What else is there to do for four hours? I already went shopping in the Hudson gift stores. UGH! This is so frustrating, I will have an additional four hours of actual flight time before I get to Chicago. I'll probably get to my house until 3-3:30 am.

Summary of San Jose Trip

Here I am waiting for another flight. This is the first one of two that will take me home tonight. I'm heading out from San Jose to Los Angeles and finally arriving in Chicago. It's actually pretty dead in here, which is disappointing, because when booking this flight I assumed I couldn't find a direct flight because they were all booked. It looks like there are less than twenty people sitting here within the three adjacent gates. The airport is fairly small to begin with, especially in comparison with O'Hare airport.

The trip overall was pretty good. The conference was very informative and I benefited greatly from meeting the various vendors, clients and colleagues during my visits to the exhibition hall. One that the struck me rather odd was how strict the coordinators were in letting people into the vendor exhibition hall. This was the first conference that I've been to where people without a pass were not allowed into the vendor display area. I can understand not letting people into the seminar sessions but no one without a badge was cleared to pass a few feat into the exhibit area. The whole point of that area is for vendors to gain access to potential clients, why would the coordinators be so strict? My badge had fallen by a cyber-cafe area, and when I returned to the area to try and look for it, I was immediately stopped by what seemed like the British guards placed in front of the London castle. I asked the attendant at the registration booth and was concerned when they informed me that they would only print my badge but would lose all vouchers, to lunch, dinner and a directory booklet. Luckily they were open for me to look for the badge, since I had a pretty good idea where it would be. After convincing the national guards (ok I'm exaggerating) to let me in, sure enough I located my badge and vouchers.

I am truly happy I came, I met many nice people and good contacts that I am sure I will cross paths for work. We actually had a bit of fun as well, attending an after dinner party hosted by one of the vendors. The days however were long and tiring. ON my first day I hadn't stepped into my hotel for more than 10 minutes from 8am until 1am. The second day was a little less hectic but still tiring. The sessions were jammed packed with information and networking all day forced you to always have your game face on and be attentive at all times. After several hours I'm sure you can understand that it could be draining.

Today was a bit more relaxed. I only had a few workshops to go to. I had lunch, walked a bit and dialled into a few meetings at work, and now I am here at the airport. I hope I don't get any flight delays. I read the weather report this morning and saw that Chicago expected evening thunderstorms. I do not want to prolong an already long flight plan of six hours.

San Jose Delay

I was scared that I was going to miss my flight. I had a lot of work to finish up today and so left later than what I had planned. I asked a fellow co-worker how long it would take the blue line from where we were to O'HARE Airport. He told me that I should allow an hour and a half. That didn't give me much time at all. My flight was scheduled to depart at 7:10pm and I left the office around 4:30pm and I still ad to hike it about 5-6 blocks to the train station. To make matters worse, it was raining. I left my office building turned the corner and went back to the next door Walgreens to purchase an umbrella. After a quick 5 minutes I walked towards down the jackson/blueline stop. I went the steps and asked the security guy which was the entrance to the blue line. He pointed me towards the other-end and said State Street. I quickly dashed through the long hall way but kept noticing the signs that only read REDLINE. Once I got to the other side I turned around to look at what the sign read for the direction I came from, yep you guessed it. The bulletined entrance was behind me. UGH!! I lost another 5-10 minutes there.

I headed back cursing that security guy in my head. He saw me approach and probably saw the disgusted look n my face. He stared at me as I approached closer, to which I spoke up and said- "you sent me to the wrong direction, I need the blue line. I didn't even wait for his reaction and scanned my pass on the turn style. The other security guy who was standing next to him did manage to raise a smile out of me. He said - I'll let you ride free if you slap him. I smiled and said, no that's ok I don't want to get arrested.

I scurried down the flight of steps and waited for my train, while being serenaded by a drunken street performer singing "unforgettable" AND "New York, New York".

The train arrive I think with 10 minutes or so and actually wasn't too long in arriving to the airport. All in all I think the train ride took a full hour. I was going to have to make a quick dash to check in and go through security, but I was sure I was going to make it on time.

I would have loved to have boarded on time. As it turns out, I was on time - but my flight was not. There is a delay of a full hour and 10 minutes. PEACHY!

I went back towards the eating area and grabbed a bite to eat. I might as well as well make my tummy happy.
I often thought that I would enjoy a job where I got to travel often. I think I am now changing my mind. My flight has been delayed three times now for a delay now of two hours. The scary thing is that a flight was just announced to be canceled. Apparently there will be no more flights to Dallas tonight because of bad thunderstorm weather in the area. Knowing that my flight is headed west I am a bit scared and fear that my flight might also be cancelled or delayed even further. I am sure I rather not depart at all if the route will be too risky. God knows I rather get there late than never.

The good thing I guess is that there is a crew from the gate I am scheduled to leave from. They seem very busy but no cancellations as of yet. Another positive I suppose is that I live here. Apparently all the nearby hotels are booked and thus the airport is setting up cots in one of the gates for the stranded passengers. It's strange to see that the Chicago sky has cleared and is rather fair. We however cannot depart. Yeah I don't think I could do this on a regular basis. I don't like sleeping and believe it to be unproductive, this is much worse. I have half an hour before departing on the last updated time, and now have to go to the washroom. I debate whether to wait it out or head over and risk losing my seat that has the adjacent outlet, which took me a while to snag.

As I see many people lying down near me and others lounging around trying to get comfortable I wish I had dressed down as well and wore my flip-flops. It is true what they say - Americans are the sloppiest looking travelers but there is a reason for the madness, and what is a better excuse than being comfortable. American's are known for the life of comfort, why do you think there is such a high rate of obesity throughout the nation? People are comfortable sitting on their fat asses and not doing anything but getting more comfortable and gaining weight while they do so.

After only sleeping three and a half hour last night I am ready to fall asleep in the middle of this terminal. I think I may knock out for the entire flight. I will at least try, that is if I can board tonight.

Woohoo 6:44 and they are now boarding!!!
It is 10:20 pm I am finally aboard my flight heading towards San Jose.

Drafting A Floorplan For My New Home

I'm such a nerd I know it. I few of my friends asked me for updates on the home hunt and pictures of the place I decided to purchase. I took it a step farther and not only provided a few pictures of the listed home I also created a mini site showing the floor plan I created for myself. I actually spent a few hours Saturday figuring out how I would lay out my furniture. ValueCity Furniture Store has a nifty little java app that lets you select various furniture and move it around your specific room measurements. After creating my floor plan I layered over the room decor and gave my friends the link to view my nerdy creation. Now that that the closing date is locked I don't think I can jinx anything and am glad to share with you the details. - Check it out, what do you think of my Home Potential?