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A Return and an Update

My visit to Chicago was a good one, when it came to everything except the weather. The meetings for work were productive, I had dinner at an excellent Indian place and then went out to a show afterwards. So Thursday was an excellent day. Then I tried to leave Chicago in the middle of a winter storm in February.

Midway, which I like much more than O’Hare, was still a mess. Planes already there were taking off with some delays, but anything dependent on an arriving flight was pretty much screwed. Surveying the departure board, I noticed that there hadn’t been a flight out to Tampa yet that day, so I had a hushed conversation with one of the gate agents. Was that plane already here? Yes. Were there empty seats on that flight to Tampa? Yep. Was there a reasonable number of flights out of Tampa to Baltimore? Indeed.

So, with a promise not to share my cleverness with other stranded passengers, I added a stop on my flight back and flew into Tampa, which is my home airport. Had I gotten in a cab, I could have been at my Ma’s house in about 30 minutes. Instead, I sighed heavily as we landed, I darted off the plane and across the terminal to get in line and get on a plane heading to Baltimore. Another sigh bookended my 25 minutes in Tampa.

It was Raining in Baltimore when I arrived, meaning that everyone in the region would drive like old Floridians with the emergency brake engaged. My drive back home was over an hour too long, but I was happy to see Bits and do little but rest and worry the rest of the day.

The worrying comes into play because 5-7’s condition hasn’t really improved. Most of the Misfit Toys in New England are going to see him in the hospital this weekend, and I wish I could be there to lend love and support to him and his other visitors. He’s still on a ventilator, still sedated most of the day. His doctors want to do a biopsy of his heart and lungs to see if there is a pre-existing condition that caused all this – since the pneumonia shouldn’t have put him in this state by itself – but they cannot until he’s better. And we don’t know when that is going to happen.

5-7 is a huge football fan, making the Super Bowl this weekend another reminder of a friend in pain as I try to get caught up on work and try to think and pray for good things for him. Both he and I will turn 32 in the next several weeks. I just hope to be able to call him on his birthday and let him make rude comments about my love life and life in general.

Early Morning in the Midwest

 Everyone tells me that Chicago is a wonderful city. I’ve heard ‘cleaner and easier to get around than New York’. I’ve heard ‘friendlier than Boston.’ ‘One of the best cities in America.’

And I’d like to believe that. I’d just also like to be able to come to Chicago when it wasn’t being dominated by weather that makes you regret being born.

Setting aside passing through the city’s two airports, this is my third trip to Chicago. All three have been for work and all three have been in the winter. This trip will have me here for about 40 hours, leaving little time to explore a city that had a wind chill of -20 yesterday and that is going to be covered in snow today and tomorrow, making my flight back an adventure I’m sure. Last time I was here I arrived at 10 in the morning and was back on a plane by 7 that same evening, a good chunk of time spent in traffic to and from O’Hare.

My first trip to Chicago, while working for a magazine in NY, was the best of the three trips. I got to go to some very good places for dinner. Granted, I did so via cabs as snow whipped up and down the streets of the city, making me feel like the whole city was in a snow-globe that wouldn’t stop moving. That trip could have been a lot better without the bone chilling cold, the snow and the emotional free-fall I was in upon seeing the IrishLass. Eventually I’ll tell that story. Just possibly not here.

I shouldn’t blame Chicago really. To me the city is like that person who you’ve been introduced to by mutual friends after hearing great stories about them. And part of you really wants to get into a decent conversation with them to see if everything you’ve heard is true and to see if you can be good friends with this new person. After all, considering the fantastic things you’ve heard, there’s a lot of potential there. But each time you try to talk to them, something comes up or you get cut off, leaving you not disappointed per se, but wondering if you have a good basis for a judgment or not.

Damn, it still isn’t 6 am yet here in Chicago and I’ve been about for an hour and a half already. Between the hour difference and everything that’s on my mind, my body couldn’t stay at rest.

So, we’ll see how the day treats me and if I can somehow find a way to have a decent conversation with Chicago.