Can't Find My Way to Chicago

I had a good time in Philly. The workshop was sometimes frustrating, but we accomplished some good things. Some of the guys from the Philly site were about Roy's age and had seen Yes before, so we talked about music. I took a few people to my favorite places to eat downtown, and I seemed to know more about the city than people who were local but lived in the suburbs. All the travelers started asking me for recommendations.

One night, I got together with my parents. On Friday, the conference ended at one, so my dad and I got together for lunch. He's retired and my mom still works. It's the first time I saw him alone and one of the few times I even talked to him alone since I moved to St. Louis. We ate at Allegro's on Penn's campus. We had a good talk and then he suggested we walk around my old neighborhood. That's one of my favorite hobbies, maybe that's where I get it from. Plus, it moved the conversation from tense family stuff to architecture and what shops used to be where.

He dropped me off at the airport just before 5. My flight was supposed to leave at 7. I generally have good luck traveling - I don't miss things due to delayed flights. My memories of canceled or late flights are from when Roy and I lived apart, and they meant extra time together before one of us had to leave for home. I was tempted to try to fly out earlier, but I didn't. I was on my way to Chicago for a music festival. I would fly into Midway airport and take a shuttle to the hotel. Roy would drive up and meet me there.

It all seemed fine when I got there. Then the flight got delayed to 8, then 9. They didn't know for sure, because the plane hadn't left Pittsburgh yet. I was worried the flight would get canceled, so I called my job's travel line and they gave me options. I could fly USAir to O'Hare airport. But they were leaving only a half hour before my flight was now supposed to, and then I'd have to deal with my luggage being elsewhere and a different airport.

The flight still hadn't taken off from Pittsburgh and was now due to leave at 10pm. Did I mention that I woke up at 4:30 that morning because the workshop was starting early? Then I saw someone from the conference at the airport, someone who was supposed to be on the 5pm flight to Chicago?! Doug told me their flight had just been canceled. They had been on the plane for three hours and they pulled back into the gate. He missed his connection and would change his flight to tomorrow and go to a hotel. But the airport hotels were booking up. He left.

And then, a miracle happened. Doug's 5pm flight to Midway was resurrected. He had already left, and so had a lot of other people. They reboarded. And then they opened the remaining seats up to those of us waiting for the next two flights at Midway. I decided, I don't give a shit about my luggage. I need to get to the concert and I have the ticket with me. That's all that's important.

The 5pm flight left around 10pm. It got into Midway at 11:30pm local time. The airport monitor didn't even list my original flight on the arrivals screen, Had it even left Philly yet? Did it get canceled? That's where my luggage was. Amazingly, I had asked Roy to bring up another pair of pants for me and I borrowed the t-shirt he planned to wear home on Sunday. The hotel shuttle didn't run that late and Roy was too tired after his long solo drive to pick me up, so I sprung for a cab. We had a nice reunion when I got in. It was a loooong day, but I made it.