Letters from the Road

It is approximately 2:02 am PST or 4:02 CST here is Chicago. “But Todd, I thought you were going to Wisconsin, what happened?” I’m so glad you asked because s@!# happened when my flight got delayed from SFO and I missed the only flight between Madison and Denver. The funny thing is that United knew I was screwed before I did (yes computers are smarter than us now). You see, when I was sitting on the tarmac waiting to de-plane in Denver I got a silly little voice mail. It was from my friend United telling me that things were all cool and that they had already re-scheduled me on a flight for the following day that would get me into Madison at 1:00 pm (Keep in mind I have a meeting at 9am). I’m optimistic and say to myself, “I AM GOING TO MAKE MY FLIGHT!” I bolt out of the plane….full sprint, flip flops and all….clack, clack, clack down the airport. I think I missed the gate closing by 2 minutes (insert drama music here). After getting no love from the United customer service I take things into my own hands…Expedia. I call up and we work some magic. 9 pm flight from Denver to Chicago and a 6 am flight from Chicago to Madison.

So I fly out to Chicago, land and decide to bypass the hotel because 1) they are full, and 2) what’s wrong with a little camp out adventure in Chicago :-). I wasn’t the only person with that idea because the place looked like a SF homeless shelter. So I’m a little new at this and I’m learning the ropes. Here is my survival guide.

1. Try and arrive before midnight, supposedly I missed the red blanked fairy who blessed the whole airport with red furry blankets 10 minutes before my arrival.
2. Scope out a row of seats without armrests, these are real popular among sleepers. Your second option is the floor or jerry rigging seats to make your neck hurt for a week.
3. Get primal. I saw a woman in a suit laying on newspaper and using more news paper for a blanket. I said to myself, “works for folks back on the street in SF, why not me.” Yes folks I did it and it works.
4. Find a dark corner to avoid, vacuum man, motorized floor waxer man, and kids.
5. Get smart. It’s rainy and cold here and I’m the jackass in shorts, sandals and a short sleeve shirt. I’m on warmth quest. No I can’t build a fire, but I can do the next best thing….charge my Dell laptop and run de-frag to make sure that processor is pumping out some heat (so dorky I know). It works great.

That’s all for now. I can smell Cinnabon firing up and the floor sucks.