When I booked my plane ticket for this trip, the first itinerary that came up had a 42-minute layover in O’Hare. “Ha bloody ha,” I muttered. “Not likely.” And I picked a different itinerary with a longer layover. See, I know O’Hare.
And I was right. Ground stop delayed arrival; if I’d been on that 42-minute layover I’d never have made it. But I did, and even had time to grab a bagel by way of lunch.
Baby in front of me on the long flight; fortunately, it was not one of your screamy sorts of babies, so it and I got along fine. (It liked being winked at; couldn’t quite imitate the deed, however.)
Mirabile visu, my luggage even got here with me. If I can avoid spraining something else while I’m here, it’ll be a darn good trip.
One of my (sadly few) virtues as a conference speaker is that I am an incredibly cheap date, being vegetarian and teetotalling and not overly fond of snooty dining or haute cuisine. I happily dropped by the mall food court and had a quite decent slice of stuffed spinach-and-artichoke pizza with salad and a drink for a third the price of an entree in the hotel restaurant.
And now, happily ensconced in the Historic Menger Hotel (you must not forget the “Historic,” Best Beloved), I’m going to go clean up, run over my slides one more time (I snazzed ’em up a bit with some transitions on the plane), and go to bed.
