Flight 68

I'm actually waiting to board flight 2813 to CMH from gate G11. Eleven is my favorite number and this is the 68th flight of 2013. While I've had occasional work travel since the late 90's and regular work travel since 2005, this completes my first full year of constant travel. In fact, I've taken 24 work trips and a ridiculous number of personal ones ranging from weddings to birthday parties to scooter rallies to vacations. According to SPG/HH summaries/vacation itineraries, there were 45 hotel stays totaling 109 nights. That's a lot of sleep a on a strange pillow. This does not include tent nights from the camping trips or the times we stayed with friends. Fortunately, since 100 of those hotel stays were SPG, I hit the Platinum Ambassador level and now get awesome suite upgrades and can pro-actively select my favorite room at my regular work hotel. I just earned this last week and am excited to meet Bonnie, my new SPG person! It's the little things that make the strange pillow bearable. With this last flight I also achieve Platinum status on American. It isn't full time travel but I've earned the #roadwarrior status!

Today was a super fun adventure. It proved difficult to find non-hotel dining options with most places opening in the afternoon or for dinner only. I couldn't commit to a lengthy and expensive sit down option while flying solo. Breakfast ended up being Dunkin Donuts with two homeless dudes. Had they not already gotten their food, I would have treated them! Lunch was a pastry from Starbucks with a bunch of old gay men and an African artist who couldn't get into her studio because everyone else was out of town. She was not using an inside voice for her endless phone conversation(s). Here's a little picture journey of today's selfies:

Travel was painless getting here and the ground was beautifully snow covered at the 8:00 landing time. I slept for most of the 50 minute flight but did catch a few photos of nature's beauty. Once on the ground, the multitude of de-icing trucks and snow removal devices reminded me that ORD is ready for Winter but their on time departures sure make you wonder if they know how to use all that stuff. It's super easy to get to the "L" and $10 provides a full day pass. A taxi would have been faster but there's no adventure in that!

I spent the first few hours taking the L downtown, eating, and walking around Millennium Park and Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" sculpture. I've only ever heard of it referred to as the "bean." I thought beans were from Boston?

Once the ice skating rink opened at 10 AM, I parted with another $10 for the rental and spent about 45 mins skating forward and backwards and practicing my jumps and rotations on the freshly groomed ice. Actually, I spent the first ten minutes trying to stand and the next ten trying to avoid fallen children and foreigners. By the time I remembered how to skate and gained a little confidence, the old legs started to burn from the pain! The last several loops around the track were amazing and I had a BLAST! 

I walked back the the train and selected the Red Line to Boys Town. This mural struck a chord. Perhaps I should have volunteered at a shelter or soup kitchen instead of selfishly hoarding airline points?

Once arriving in Boys Town, I walked past our favorite boutique hotel, City Suites, and then walked Belmont, Clark, and the notorious Halstead. There was only one lunch restaurant open and it was packed to the gills. Every step triggered memories of visits to see our Chicago friends, weekend escapes from Columbus, and general gay foolishness in our youth. Many of the old bars and shops are still there. Had they been open, I likely would have struck up a conversation and ended up with some new friends or made the small-world connections that would undoubtedly link us to a common thread. It was oddly strange to be in the epicenter of excitement and have nobody to talk to. I actually needed this introspective journey. I am thinking. I am thinking a lot.  

I was essentially in the cold all day; the temperature only broke 20 about half way through the trip. Waiting for the cross-town Addison city bus to avoid going back downtown proved to be too cold. I broke down and took a $10 cab ride to the Blue line where my all day L pass promptly delivered me back to the airport. I grabbed a couple drinks in the Admiral's Club and now I'm waiting for the (delayed) flight home. Tim is picking a dinner spot so I hope it isn't too late!

Merry Christmas!