One Little Victory

So I should be in Salt Lake City right now. Am I? Nooooooo…

I should have known. I never fly United, mainly because every time I do, there is some type of drama.

It’s not all bad. I am typing this from my suite at The Renaissance O’Hare. It’s on United’s dime thankfully, but it’s an awfully nice hotel. All I’m paying for is the internet access, and Portabello mushroom sandwich that I had for dinner at 10:30.

It started with my plane being late getting to Bloomington; a bolt fell off of the wing, so I guess it’s good that they took the time to fix it. We left Bloomington an hour late,got into O’Hare, and then I ran from the F Concourse to the C Concourse (for those that don’t know the airport, they are NOT close to one another). I get to the gate….the flight to Salt Lake left about ten minutes earlier (it had also been delayed), and I looked for an agent to talk to. Um yeah, good luck with that. Finding a ticket agent when you need one is about as likely as finding a Wal-Mart employee when you have no idea where the rice cakes are located (not that I have any experience with that or anything).

So I finally overhear someone who is getting help get directed to “Customer Service.” So I run there, no doubt pissing off all the people I beat to the line. No matter… my entertainment had only begun. I then got to stand in line for almost 90 minutes waiting to talk to a ticket agent to find out what I already knew…. I can’t get there (Salt Lake) from here (Chicago). Thankfully, it was mechanical problems causing the delay, thus the nice free hotel suite. I found out (from a more unfortunate soul) that delays caused by air traffic control resulted in you being told to frack off by the airline.

So here I sit, drinking my $4 Pepsi and listening to Rush while I vent through this blog. I am on standby for a 10:00 flight and confirmed for a 2:15 flight…the training, of course, starts at 1:00 Mountain time. Bill, my co-trainer, now gets stuck filling in, which will no doubt cause him endless joy given that, due to my knack for doing things at the last minute, he is working without the handouts that are sitting in my backpack here in the room.

I won’t even contemplate where my checked bag is, or what month I might hope to see it again. I know this…I will arrive in Salt Lake tomorrow wearing the same clothes I have on now. I might be doing some clothes shopping tomorrow night in Utah.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of this was the lack of information provided by United staff here in Bloomington. Clearly information was only provided on a “need to know” basis and we pesky piss-ant passengers (say that ten times fast) didn’t need to know. They didn’t even bother to begin communicating with us until our departure time had already come and gone and there was still no plane at the gate.

I should add the highlight of the night was the actual flight in. Our pilot was hauling, as we had a very narrow window so as not to get caught in traffic, and we flew over Wrigley Field twice while there was a game going on… it was a beautiful sight.

So in summary, the Renaissance O’Hare is great, but United still sucks.

Tonight I had to finish prepping the materials for the training we are doing in Salt Lake City beginning on Wednesday….turned out to be a 46 page guide from Hell, but well worth the effort. Kinko’s should have it done for me by noon tomorrow (ordering on-line with them is just SO convenient) and that is one thing put to bed.

Also had to study tonight for my final test in my HR class tomorrow. I get to take the test at 9, come home and play with kids, somewhere in there head to Kinko’s…. play with Sydney when she gets home at around 2, and then head off to the airport at 4 or so. I won’t get in to Salt Lake City until after 10, so I won’t be in my hotel room until at least 11….gonna be a long day tomorrow. But at least I can go to SLC caught up on most of my work…. need to do some writing for my other summer class, but we don’t get back together for a couple of weeks.

But the best part is that they have me booked for a single room in a place that has wireless, so I (hopefully) won’t fall behind on my e-mail over the next week….we shall see!

Sydney turned 7 today, so we had a party with a houseful of kids and had the in-laws over… everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. It was a “Lazy Town” theme, thus the pink cupcakes!

Otherwise, just working and getting ready for the Utah trip.

Just like the song says, the greatest act can be one little victory…

In my case, I am needing a slightly “bigger” victory to get little. I have been displeased with my weight for a long time, and it’s time to put some public pressure on myself to do something about it. So here we go! Last night at gaming I caught myself eating six pieces of pizza for dinner…that’s just a tad excessive. Although all of my indicators (blood pressure, cholesterol, EKG) are healthy, the simple fact is I am carrying about 50-60 pounds too much, and it’s gotta go.

So no diet plans, no fads, no BS…just more exercise and fewer calories. I’m choosing a tough time to start, heading out to Utah for a week to teach at the Gehring Institute where we will no doubt be tempted by some pretty incredible food. So I think I’ll either be passing up some opportunities to go out to eat or having salads as a main course! :-)

I should have kept up with this over time…definitely would have been easier than trying to drop a bunch of weight at 42.