I’ve decided to post my final CIL entry here instead of on my CIL05 blog since it’s way long and I though it would be of interest to those who read this blog and have not been reading the other one.
7:39am Chicago O’Hare International Airport
When last we left the Travelin’ Librarian… Wait, I have absolutely no idea when I last blogged. (I’m not online as I write this post; I plan on posting it when I finally get home.) I think it was sometime around Friday morning, and I was in DC at CIL. Then again I could be wrong. Here’s what’s happened since then…
I did my Bookmarklets Cybertour and it went well. Several people hung around after the presentation to ask some very good questions. (There are photos, taken by Amanda, in my CIL ofoto album. Karen, Amanda and I decided to head off to find some lunch on 18th street and Karen suggested that we “bag the rest of the afternoon” and go to the zoo. I was done with anything required of me at the conference and had never been to the national zoo so I thought this would be a wonderful idea. We found some Mexican for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon at the zoo. (Zoo photos also in the previously linked album.) Finding ourselves at the far end of the zoo and exhausted the three of us walked back through the zoo and caught a cab back to meet up with the bloggers dine-around at Thaiphoon at 6pm.)
As dinner was starting I received a text message from Katrina who I’d met on Wednesday evening at the speaker’s reception and sat with at the Dead Technologies presentation. Having no specific plans for the evening we decided to meet up at 8:30 for some coffee.
We met up at the appointed time and went out for some coffee. Two hours later we decided to vacate the coffeehouse on Connecticut and head for a different one (Tryst) on 18th. Finding Tryst mobbed and the music (although good) very loud and not conducive to conversation we decided not to stay. (How the students there were getting their work done I’ll never understand.) Heading back down the block, Katrina spotted a hookah bar and said she’d hadn’t done that since her last trip to Israel. Always wanting to try new things, it sounded like a wonderful idea to me. (See photo on moblog.) At 2am we decided to head back to our respective hotels.
Back at the hotel, I opened up my laptop to discover that some significant screws had come loose and that the lid/screen would no longer close without splitting open. Did I have a screwdriver small enough for these screws? Of course not. Eventually I broke off the metal pocket clip from a vendor’s swag pen (they’re good for something) and used it to retighten the screw. Meanwhile Katrina and I had made plans via SMS to meet up for breakfast before out flights home. I set my alarm for 7am and went to bed. It was 4am.
I woke up promptly at 6:15, showered, turned off the alarm and headed out to wonder about the neighborhood to kill some time. At 8, Katrina and I met up again, went back to the coffee house of the previous evening and had some breakfast then walked around DuPont circle. Eventually, we ended up back at my hotel where SuperShuttle picked me up at 10:15 to get me to Regan National for my 12:45 flight to Chicago, to be followed by a 2:55 flight home to Denver. Katrina was scheduled on the 2:45 flight back home to Chicago. (Ah, the best laid plans…)
I got to National, checked my one bag with my clothes, cords, etc., and got through security without a hitch. I’d been placed on standby for the 12:24 flight since it had been oversold. Sensing an opportunity for some company at the airport, and since she wasn’t feeling well and not looking forward to her flight, I asked the gate agent if I could be moved to the 2:45 flight to Chicago, then booked on to Denver. At first she said no since my bag was already checked on the 12:45 flight and that I needed to go with my bag. (It’s a security thing.)
At 12:15 they started boarding the flight and calling names from the standby list. When I didn’t hear my name in the first group called I re-approached the gate agent and offered to move to standby on the 2:45 flight. This time it was no problem. I was put on standby for the later flight, and again put on standby for a later flight from Chicago to Denver. Katrina arrived at the airport; we got some ice cream and settled in to wait for our flight. I got on the 2:45 flight; we exchanged a seat with another passenger (luck him as Katrina’s seat was up front with the premier executives), and continued our conversation on the way to Chicago.
We got to Chicago on-time and proceeded to the gate for my Denver flight. We got to the gate and we informed that the flight to Denver was oversold by 30 seats and there were an additional 15+ standby passengers. Getting on this flight did not look good. At this point the gate agent said that I wasn’t on the flight that I’d just gotten off of. What!? According to the system, I’d flown to Chicago on my original 12:45 flight. This made absolutely no sense. 10 minutes later I got a complete story, sort of. It seems that I’d been assigned a seat on the 12:45 flight, i.e. no longer on standby, and that I’d “volunteered to give up my seat” on that flight. (This was news to me.) Since this was my “choice” I was now on perpetual standby for the rest of the day. Katrina said I could stay at her place for the night so could I be guaranteed on a flight on Sunday morning? The answer was no, because this was all my fault. I’d have to wait until I’d not gotten on the last flight out Saturday night as a standby passenger before being moved to standby mode on Sunday morning.
We left the gate and headed for customer service. Luckily, Katrina flies United enough to be a premier executive and was able to get me into the Red Carpet Club where the line for help is nonexistent. (This was my first time in one of these clubs. Unfortunately I now know what I’m missing.) The customer service agent confirmed the story to me. So, we started to discuss options. Could I purchase a new ticket home in on Sunday morning? There was one available for $320. (Ouch!) Could Katrina use some of her frequent flyer miles to get me a ticket home on Sunday. Yes. A business class seat for 40,000 miles. (Thanks for the offer but I felt very uncomfortable accepting such an offer.) Could I change my Denver to Des Moines flight on Monday morning to a Chicago to Des Moines flight? (Had everything worked out as originally planned I was to be home for 41 hours before leaving on another trip.) I figured that I could cover the $100 change fee and hopefully get my bag with appropriate clothing (which was by this time on its way to Denver) to meet me in Des Moines. Well, take the original ticket price, subtract the $100 change fee, and then add the difference for the new flight and the total was more than $450. (Double ouch!) My best option was to accept Katrina’s offer of the miles, despite all of the associated guilt.
We asked the customer service rep to do this for me when, like Mighty Mouse swooping in the save the day, a seat opened up on the Sunday 8am flight to Denver which they could switch me to at no charge! (I had used a previously-earned free flight coupon to go book this trip, and the available seat fell into the category allowing this change without charging me anything.) Problem solved.
Sort of.
I had a flight out in the morning and I had a place to stay. All my clothes were in Denver at this point. Washing machine in Katrina’s apartment, here we come. On top of that, my cell phone charging cable had been packed in the Denver-based bag. Send off a few quick txt messages to let people know I’m o.k. but not home yet (this is your explanation folks, a little long for a 160-character txt message) and turned off the phone for the night to conserve the 40% of the battery that was left. Get Katrina’s bag, head for the El, and into Chicago we head. It’s now 6pm on Saturday.
Drop off the bags, dinner at a great Indian/Tappas restaurant (can’t recall the name), and back to the apartment for laundry (don’t ask what I ended up wearing in the meantime…), True Romance (the movie), and more conversation. Set the alarm for 6am so I can take the El back to O’Hare (I’m already checked in and my luggage is in Denver so all I’ve got to deal with is getting through security), and get some sleep. It’s now 3am.
Wake up Sunday morning (in case you’re not keeping track I’ve had a total of 6.25 hours of sleep since I woke up Friday morning), say goodbye and a very big thank you, take the El back to O’Hare, get through the short line at security (I didn’t even have to take off my sneakers), and to the gate I head, stopping off at a Starbucks for some much needed caffeine. At the gate they’re in an oversold situation again. (Why is everyone suddenly trying to get to Denver?!) This time they’re asking for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for a free flight voucher. The temptation was just too great.
It’s now 8:21 am on Sunday and I’m sitting at gate C24. I’m on standby for the 9am flight to Denver but it’s unlikely that I’ll get on the flight. I do have a confirmed seat on the 11:55 flight which will get me into Denver at 1:45pm, approximately 18 hours before I need to be back at DIA to catch my flight to Des Moines. But, I’ve also got a free flight voucher in my bag.
I wonder where that little blue slip will take me
9:13am
Since I’m writing this, you can correctly assume that I didn’t get on the 9am flight. I didn’t expect to, but it was actually close. It turned out that two people didn’t show up for the flight and there was a group of five ahead of me on the standby list. (Lucky me!) Unfortunately, they asked the leader of the group of five if they were willing to split their party (send two on this flight, and the other three on a later flight), and they too the offer. That left me shuffling off to gate C19 to wait for my 11:55 flight.
At least now I’ve found a working outlet so I can actually get some editing done of the XHTML/CSS book. The presence of working outlets, (or outlets at all for that matter,) seems to be sparse in O’Hare (with the exception of in the Red Carpet Clubs). I’m currently sharing an outlet panel with a recharging people car. Then again I might try to get some sleep. Maybe I should pack an emergency DVD from now on.
11:29
I’m on the plane but alomst passed on another flight. At the last minute they announced that they were looking for voulnteers again. This time for a free trip voucher and a business class seat to Denver. I considered it until I learned they’d provide the upgraded seat on the 5:15pm flight. I decided that another 5 hours in O’Hare just wasn’t going to allow me to keep what little sanity I have left.
3:01
I’m home after stopping by the office to pick up some materials I need for the Des Moines trip tomorrow. I actually slept for the whole flight to Denver, an unheard of occurrence for me. I guess I needed the sleep. (Current total now 8.25 hours in the past 57 hours.) I’ve also returned some overdue library materials and found out that the dry cleaner’s isn’t open on Sunday. All my devices are plugged in to recharge (laptop, cell, iPod) and the first load of laundry is in the wash. My held mail didn’t get delivered yesterday so I don’t have to deal with that, however much I’d like to. Maybe I’ll try to take a short nap.
