My Random Thoughts

So, I was traveling back to Chicago on Thursday. I was taking the first of my 9 CCP exams. I have a flight from PBI-CVG-ORD (Palm Beach, Cinci, Chicago). My flight to CVG was uneventful. It took off on time, it was smooth, I got to sleep the whole way, it was quite lovely.

I had a very short connection in CVG. Luckily the airport is small. I get a snack and something to drink and sit down for the 15 minutes I had to wait before boarding. That’s when it all went to hell. As I sit there, I see it flash with CANCELLED! WHAT? How could that be? I was talking to my boss and he said the weather was fine. The gate agents didn’t seem to know what was going on.

After a few minutes, they were finally able to confirm that yes, it was cancelled. I had called my travel agent and found out what the other flights available out were. I get up to the counter to find out that they were saying it was weather. No, we can’t get you into Chicago tonight. I have to get to chicago tonight, my test is at 7am. Can you get me to Milwaukee, I’ll drive. No, can’t get you to Milwaukee either, all flights are cancelled. In fact all flights into that area are cancelled.

Hmmm, this sounds fishy, but I’ll bite. I decide to drive the 5 hours it would take to get me from Cinci to Chicago. It was only 4pm. I had daylight, this should be okay.  As I tell the gate agent I guess I’ll drive, the woman in line beside me said, Hey, I need to get there too, can I come along? Sure and then 3 other gals came out of line.

So my troupe of 4 women I met at the airport and I got a rental car and made the drive to Chicago. As we all called our respective families the stories were the same, how did you meet these women? Oh, we met in line at the airport. Do you know them? didn’t then, but do now. One has 3 children, 2 of them twins. One works for MySpace, another sells pianos, the last is in school. All were going to hang out with friends or family for the week - except for the piano salesperson - she was working!

Everyone thought we were crazy, but hey, you know what they say about strange bedfellows.

I told Jeff about it. He called back a little while later and said do you know what is going on in Chicago? Uh, weather? Yeah, they evac’d the control tower. hmmm, good reason why flights were cancelled, huh? As I’d further come to learn it was not just a bad storm, but a near tornado storm. Trees were down everyplace. Some people didn’t get power back until Saturday. Roads were flooded (and are still closed).

I thought driving was a good idea. When I went to check the flights the next day, I was even more sure as all the flights from 3:15pm on were cancelled on all carriers. I only drove through one scary part. The rest of the drive was unventful. We stopped for a quick dinner in Wannamaker, IN and generally had a nice drive.

I exchanged emails with some of the girls. If I ever hear from them again, great. If not, I hope I left a positive impression on them for the 6 hours of their lives they spent with me.

I’m getting to that point where I’m hating my life again. This project is sucking every piece of joy and excitement from me. I don’t do things for myself. I haven’t worked on any hobbies for quite a while. All I do is work and sleep and do it all over again.

I love the people I work with, I love the work that i do, but this just is getting to the point that its just not worth it. The professional challenge is done. I’m getting strokes and encouragement, but I’m just damned emotionally exhausted.

I’m trying to think of ways to be passive agressive about my exhaustion, but that takes too much energy. I’m thinking of drawing into myself to protect myself, but that’s going to be hard this week while i’m in the office and people want to see me and talk to me. I guess I should go see a therapist and get my angst out. Maybe I just need a hug.

We were watching The Weather Channel, a woman in the islands made a comment about just finding out it was a Cat 5 and that made her figure out it was time to leave.  I say to Jeff, wait, it’s not a Cat 5 yet.

He says:

155 miles, 150 miles - what does it matter, either way its going to ruin your day.

Yeah, that just about sums it up.