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4am is too early to wake up. My phone rang just before 4 and it
took me a minute to realize that it was the automated message from
United. It told me that my flight was going to be fine. Back to sleep
for me. An hour later and I am back up and about ready to roll. Nick
was all set to take me into the airport and poor Jess woke up to see
me off. I considered am offer to take a donut with me but decided
that it might be best to just leave them behind. I spared us all from
any further picture taking, said goodbye to Jess and hopped into the
car. |
Traffic in to the airport was pretty minimal so we got there with plenty
of time. There was no one at all at the check in window, so I used the
express check in and got in line for security. Silly me, I got into the
employee line, so I woke up a bit and went down to a checkpoint with no
line at all. While walking to the gate, I saw a soda machine that had
the cherry/spoon sculpture. I thought about doing some clever photo with
it, but at 5:45am I lacked the initiative to follow through. So far so
good, over an hour before my flight leaves.
Ok seriously, these two people next to me at the
airport have some serious morning breath. Gross. Last night before
I went to sleep I had changed my seats for the planes. The back
of this one has 4 people in the back 30 seats. So I have an entire
row to myself. Usually I go for exit row seating, but this is much
better. I don't mind sitting in the back of the plane. If this were
a school bus, I would be one of the cool kids. This is really nice
I can stretch my feet all the way under the seat in front of me
and I don't have to worry about kicking anyone.
For some reason the plane seemed to be swaying back and forth a
lot, while we were on the ground. I think maybe I am just overly
sleepy though, and am just swaying back and forth myself. Who knows.
Once we got up into the air though it was better though. The flight
is rather fancy, there are screens that popped down so that we could
see how to do all the safety stuff, and now they are showing some
version of the travel channel. At the moment the plane is pretty
shakey. I suppose that is to be expected when you fly into a place
called the windy city. |
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My flight out of Chicago has a good seat too. I stuck myself into the
front row so that I don't have to worry about waiting to get out of the
plane. I should have a decent amount of time to get from terminal to terminal
once I get there, so I will see if I can get any pictures of fun stuff
along the way.
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| Ok, I think someone put drugs in my ginger ale. I flew into one
of the C gates and saw that I had a long way to go to my next flight,
F2. So off I wandered. Down the hall and down a huge flight of stairs
I saw something very strange. Chicago apparently likes to make people
feel at ease by creating pathways that make you feel the need to seek
out psychiatric help. Layers and layers of rainbow colored neon lights
pulsed on and off as creepy futuristic music played quietly in the
background. Most of the travelers seemed unfazed by this. Maybe I
was seeing things. |
Movie clip of above |
After saying hello to Captain EO and avoiding the many pink elephants
and dancing bears, I accepted that this is just another typical day in
Chicago. I climbed a huge set of stairs, passing by all of the escalator
passengers and popped up right beside the dinosaur I saw on Thursday.
| On and on I walked until I finally arrived at gate F2. Whew! I sat
down in a chair and looked up to check out if I was in the right place.
Oh and look what I found. A sign for a shuttle that would have taken
me from gate C to E (right beside F). Oh well at least I had a chance
to see the wondrous subterranean 'art'. |
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The second flight was uneventful. I was a bit cramped up front, but
I hopped off and text messaged Taikara that I had arrived. As soon as
I got to the front door of the airport I noticed her sitting there ..
sending me a message back. I suppose I could have gone to work today.
But I just needed a bit more time to decompress. We went to lunch, Toys
'R' Us and the mall. Both of us picked up some shirts on sale. I took
the back way home, no point in hurrying. When I was home I checked the
mail (bills), sat on the couch, watched some cartoons that had recorded..
and fell asleep.
I'm home, all's well. I am really happy that I had a chance to get out
and see Nick's new house and the place he calls home. This was one of
the few good surprises I have witnessed in quite a while. Rather refreshing.
I imagine that Nick will get over it sometime soon  .
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