When bad travel happens to good people

1:30pm - Jamie leaves the John Hancock Center and hails a cab for O'Hare.

4:10pm - Scheduled departure time for Jamie's flight to Pittsburgh. Gate agent announces a 90-minute delay due to snow flurries in Chicago.

5:50pm - Flight 4179 finally departs for Pittsburgh. Jamie strikes up a conversation with his seatmate, a DJ and morning-show host for a Phoenix Top-40 radio station.

6:30pm - Somewhere over northern Ohio, the cabin pressure fails. Some of the oxygen masks drop down, but we're instructed not to use them. The cabin keeps alternating between freezing cold and uncomfortably hot, and Jamie's ears keep blowing out. The Top-40 DJ is white as a sheet and clutching her armrests. The plane makes a 180-degree turn and heads back to Chicago.

7:15pm - Flight 4179 lands back in Chicago, where passengers are told not to worry about the fire trucks waiting along the runway. Jamie is reaccommodated on a United flight leaving at 10pm.

8:00pm - Jamie, the Top-40 DJ, and a similarly-delayed software salesman from Youngstown, Ohio, bond over *entirely* too many beers in the Admirals Club, then switch to the Red Carpet Club when they run out of free drink vouchers.

9:50pm - United announces a 40-minute delay to Flight 760, bound for Pittsburgh. The plane finally leaves at about 10:35pm.

12:05am (Eastern time) - Flight 760 lands in Pittsburgh in heavy snow. The brakes makes a strange sound, prompting a sign of the cross from the Top-40 DJ. Naturally, nobody's luggage made the transfer.

12:30am - Avis announces that it has "no record" of Jamie's reservation for a rental car, and provides him with "the only car we have left," a Crown Victoria that reeks of smoke.

12:55am - The Crown Victoria is rear-ended by a Pittsburgh city bus as Jamie attempts to find his hotel. There's no damage, fortunately, but it's basically the last straw, and for the remainder of the drive Jamie screams obscenities and flecks the windshield with spittle.

1:30am - Jamie goes to bed, wondering if he'll ever see his luggage again and wondering what he ever did to the city of Pittsburgh to merit such a welcome.

What's cold?

29° at 3:30 pm today.

What's colder than that?
Walking from SPAC to almost Dempster without appropriate head gear.

What's colder than that?
Doing it commando because you forget to take an extra pair of boxers to the gym.

Brrrrrr!

1997 to 2007... What a difference

Yes, party people, the rumors are true. I did just get my very first 10 year high school reunion email! It made me feel a combination of old and nervous. You see, I wasn't one of these people in high school....






so I'm not sure what it would be like. You see, in high school, I was quiet and studious. Nothing like the riotous good time you all know and love. In a word, I was mousy. Bad glasses, really bad hair, worse clothes and the poorest kid in school. People knew who I was mostly because I could help them with their class work. So, a quick outside context poll... Do I go?

Also, a fun little tidbit. The picture of good old BHS in the link above shows the front of the school. The first and only time I tried a skateboard, I fell right down those stairs. Mere moments later, my boyfriend at the time broke his arm riding down the railing on the left.

p.s. Jamie - sorry to post over the snake. he was cute, but I felt a need to get some opinions :)

Awwww

This is the first time I've ever found a snake cute.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/omni_kh/359390989/

Home is where I hang my hat...

... or I will, if I ever finish unpacking. I *hate* moving; Jen and Andrik, how have you done it so many times over the past few years?

The new place is good. It's much, much older than my former apartment, which is something I'm still struggling with. The landlord did a lot of repairs before I moved in (and, unfortunately, while I was moving in) including a new kitchen floor, replastering all the walls, replacing the toilet and installing new ceiling fans. Yet to come are new windowsills. Still, I'm not used to the floor creaking when I walk or putting up with subpar water pressure from 80-year-old plumbing.

I'll have pictures when I finish unpacking. I still need a lot of stuff - area rugs (A&J, any recommendations for places to get them?), a coat rack, a rack to go above my toilet. I think with some with TLC, it'll be a nice apartment. And the commute is only 15 minutes door to door - amazing!

I just wonder if maybe I'm not a suburban guy at heart. We'll see how I adjust to the city living thing.

That's right, I said ALL wheel drive

Lest you all think we had less fun than you on Jen's birthday, we decided to go out and get some more debt. After much gnashing of teeth and numbers, we bought one of these last weekend:



You all know I loved my little Acura, but you all also sat in the back seat of it, so I'm sure you'll appreciate this decision as much as we have come to. Plus, this guy can go to the mountains and carry stuff on its roof, so it's got that going for it. Which is nice.

The best part, though, has got to be how solid it is. The other night Radar jumped in the back while we were showing some friends. After a while we managed to drag him out and close the back gate. He must not have noticed, cause he promptly turned around and tried to jump back in. THUD. I think Liz and I hurt ourselves more laughing than he did, but the car was fine. Good solid machine there.

Collaboration

This very nice video is really a group effort.
Pablo is the one who actually shot the footage.
Jamie came 2000 miles to be at the event.
I decided to go to Howl at the Moon.
Jen was born 27 years ago.



I don't anticipate being alive long after Jen finds this post. Send me your goodbye wishes while I am still able to read them.

Here we go again...

Well, after a week and a half of tirelessly defending the couch from the ruthless forces of anti-gravity, I had to return to class yesterday. Today, I went to what I thought was my second scheduled class. I was wrong. It was my third class. It turns out that there were classes scheduled for yesterday (usually there are no classes on Wednesdays). Except that yesterday we had "make up" classes for the ones we "missed" by not attending on Monday and Tuesday. Bullshit.

I'm tired of all these re-scheduled classes. Many of the classes that I have taken need to stretch their content to fill all 10 weeks in the quarter. Why the hell do they need to greatly inconvenience us to schedule special extra class sessions for events that everyone is completely aware of? For example, there is no way that there will ever be any classes on January 1st or 2nd. So, why not plan your course schedule to not count on having class time on these days? Why do you have to go through all the trouble of scheduling separate classes, when it is inevitable that some students (no matter when it is) will not be able to attend?

I have one class that will not start until next Monday. At the first session, we will reschedule TWO classes. Ridiculous. The school is also rescheduling all the classes that will be missed because NU has decided to observe MLK day by canceling classes. All of Monday the 15th's classes will be held on the 17th, during which I will be out of town. Which means that I will miss these sessions as well.

There's only one word that can describe this type of action.