Chicago Travel 1

I am not a business traveller. I'm not "good" at this. As they say.

It is 7:12 am. I am in Newark International Airport and my flight leaves at 9:00. I was here at 7:02, have checked in online, and am so early I could have actually taken the 7:35 to Chicago. Next time I know. They've made this so easy that it's really a bang-bang operation. I have yet to go through security.

This is the first of my 5 part Chicago Travelling series on the week. I'm going out because my boss and his boss are in Chicago. I still have a lot to learn. Hopefully this will be a productive trip for that. I am drinking a cup of coffee.

NOTE. I'm going to post this all from my Blackberry. So there will be no HTML markup, no bold, italics, or lists. And it won't be spell checked. I'm also going to mark new sections within each day with a time as opposed to trying to make it flow continuously.

7:44 am

I am through security and I have to crap, big time. I rode a lot of bike this weekend and plenty, so my body tends to go into chipmunk mode and store as much "stuff" as it can. Now I'm "releasing" it. We board in 45 minutes. They make you take out your laptop but no longer make you turn it on. Nothing much happens for the next 45 minutes other than my buying a skim milk.

8:25 am

They call my name! Oh shit this can't be good can it? Turns out my seat is something they call "in-op" which I assume means inoperable. There's no seat back. They move me to a window seat instead, same aisle. 15 seconds and I have a new boarding pass.

11:48 am

In the cab. An uneventful flight which is good. The landing was about the best I've ever experienced. I got a free coffee and not much else to report. We landed on time. This cab is blisteringly hot until he turns on the A/C when we get on the interstate. It takes us about 25 minutes

2:18 pm

Back from lunch. Went to some place in the basement of the Sears tower. I got a colossal amount of lemon chicken which was good. I left the pasta and bread almost entirely uneaten because I'm all about the protein these days. No empty carbs.

6:54 pm

Eating dinner at a Potbelly Sandwich Works shop. The rest of the day was moderately useful but nothing to fly out to Chicago for. But we're ramping up on what we need to do over the next 3 days. That's the meat of the trip and I'm optimistic it will have been worth coming out here for. First thing tomorrow morning I'm working with one of the girls on a build process she takes care of. Then we have a few other obvious things to take care of as well. After dinner I cross the street and buy a gallon of water at Walgreens.

7:21 pm

I get on the phone and talk mostly to Julia for 20 minutes telling her a story I tell her every night at bedtime. She constantly says "more" when I pause. It's a feedback loop though so I know she's listening because she answers at the right times. Good stuff.

7:55 pm

I check out the fitness room and there's no exercise bike so looks like I'll be 5 straight days off the bike which is no big deal. I may hit the stair climber Thursday just to keep my legs honest.

I then go down to the bar and get a Stone Mill Pale Ale. It's not really that good. I think 1 will be enough for me. Despite the large amount of chicken for lunch I haven't had a lot of food today. So this goes straight to my head. I guess I could have timed it better as I could see myself going up and going to bed but it's a hair early.

Having a buzz softens the edges of being nowhere. This town reminds me of Pittsburgh in some ways.

8:35 pm

Back in the hotel room with a nice low-grade buzz. I'm thinking I might need to go back to Walgreens and get a can of tuna for later. I'm a bit obsessed with the protein thing, I admit. I really want to get as close to 180 as I can in the next month before the Dark Horse 40. I saw 189 again this weekend for the first time since the day after I got back from Taiwan. Is my narrative drifting? What the hell does this have to do with Chicago?

That's enough for now. Going to zone out and watch TV and go to bed early tonight.