I got an unexpected call tonight from a friend of mine who thought I may be going stir-crazy in my hotel room. What an awesome suprise that was! One of the things that we talked about was her blog...she's got a natural talent for writing, so reading her musings about this or that is a great way for me to get my head out of my work for a bit. I had thought about blogging myself for a while, but figured my life wasn't really something anyone would be interested in. Not like H, who writes about her hubby and kiddos, or like another friend of mine, D, who initially started her blog as a way to keep everyone informed on the progress of her son, who was born super early (now, he's like any other 3-year old, but she still blogs about her family).
H told me tonight that she was suprised at who actually reads her blog. She uses her blog as a way to write something her children can reflect on in the future, but also as a way to blow off some steam when she needs to. She never really thought people would take the time to read it.
While I'm not foolish enough to think that my blog is actually of interest to many, I thought it might actually be a good place for me to blow off some steam and detach myself from work for a few minutes every once in a while.
All of this brings me to my first entry on my blog, the Great Blizzard of 2011.
Anyone who knows me will understand why I titled my blog what I did. It's a turn of words on my hometown, and the fact that I'm often traveling to multiple cities in a month. This week was supposed to be an "easy" travel week. There was no air travel, all I had to do was drive to Illinois for the week. Easy enough, right?
Over the weekend, weathermen started to go into their panic mode, as Stormageddon was supposed to bear down on Wisconsin and Illinois during the week. Usually, when the media gets this hyped up about a storm it fizzles out, so I didn't panic too much about it. I was, however, proactive about a few things "just in case." I packed some "comfy" clothes (jeans and a sweatshirt) in case I had to work from the hotel one day; I picked a hotel that was surrounded by restaurants, so I could walk to dinner rather than drive if the snow was a blowing; and I even packed my portable DVD player and 3 seasons of The West Wing, in case the DirecTV at the hotel went out.
Unfortunately, there was one thing I didn't think about: what happened if the power went out at the hotel. Last night, the lights flickered a couple of times, and when I made a comment about it on Facebook my cousin commented that I should call down for an extra blanket just in case. So, I did that, and I dug out my flashlight just in case the lights did go out for a while. I pulled out the power strip that I carry in case I get stranded at an airport (it's a great way to make friends while waiting for a delayed flight if you have a place someone can charge their phone - and it makes it easy to convince someone to let you plug into the outlet if they aren't giving up their charging capability), since it has a surge protector, and plugged in all of my electronic garb.
When the power went out a little after Midnight, I grabbed the extra blanket, turned on the DVD player (I needed some noise to drown out the drunk group of people who'd just gotten back to the room next door) and snuggled into bed. No worries, I figured, by morning everything would be fine. Unfortunately, when I woke up at 6:00, the power still wasn't on. Since I'd drained the battery in the DVD player, I couldn't do my kickboxing workout, so I figured I'd go back to sleep for an hour and hope the power was back on when I woke up again...WRONG.
So, I started out today with a fully charged laptop and a cell phone that had already lost about 13% of its charge...the major downfall of the iPhone, and no TV, Radio or DVD Player to provide me background noise. Immediately, I set the laptop to "conserve energy," hoping the power would come on before I drained the battery completely. I turned off the 3G on the phone to conserve what power I had left, and started my workday. Just before noon, the laptop gave me the "find a place to plug in" warning message, and I saved my files just before it shut down.
By this time, I knew that the hotel was going to be serving a complementary banquet lunch downstairs, so I figured I may as well eat. I was on the fifth floor of the hotel, which has 16 floors in total. Since they were operating on generator power, only one elevator was operational, and by the time an elevator going to the lobby reached the 5th floor, it was full from the first 11 floors that it stopped at....which leads me to my first real gripe of the day. What kind of architect designs a hotel where the stairs don't go down to the lobby? (I have more to say about architects, but will save that for another day). In some architect's logic, it made sense to have the stairs allow you to only get to the second floor, where you would have to exit to the outside world. I don't mind walking the stairs, but in the middle of a blizzard I really didn't want to go outside and walk around the hotel to go in the lobby entrance. All of this led to the very interesting approach of pushing the UP button of the elevator, catching it on the way to the top, and riding it all the way back down to the lobby, a process which took about 20 minutes.
Well before this point, I had come to the realization that it was very likely the hotel wouldn't be getting power back today, but they were still advising people to stay off of the roads, and from my hotel window I could see that the roads were not in any real driving condition. This made for a VERY long afternoon. I realize now that I probably should have packed a book, or at least a magazine, from home, but I never thought about what would happen if the power went out at the hotel. For all of my laughing at my co-workers who hadn't thought about not being able to get back to Chicago last night, and bragging about being prepared, I really wasn't. Of course, I did at least have enough clothes along, but I was going out of my mind from sheer boredom. At least I knew I wasn't alone...at lunch I met a group of 5 women who were so bored they went "shopping" at the tiny hotel gift shop to pass the time (I'm not sure if they bought the "Someone who loves me very much" T-Shirt, the glow in the dark Willis Tower statue or some "incidental" items, but that was the wide selection they could choose from, so I'm sure they didn't alleviate their bordem for long.
Finally, at about 4:00, traffic seemed to be flowing a bit better, and I was able to get a reservation at a nearby hotel. I packed up everything, made the trek out to the parking lot and loaded up the Trailblazer. I have never been so glad to have a radio in my entire life, but it made me feel like I was back in the real world. What's usually a 7 minute drive on Lake Cook Road from Milwaukee Ave to just East of I-294 took about 25 minutes. Only one lane was plowed, and there were some cars that had spun out or gotten stuck that I had to make my way around, but I made it to my new home away from home in one piece. I unpacked my suitcase again, and then settled in with my laptop in front of the TV, checked on the shipping status of my iPad and then got back to work.
That's when I realized how much I depend on electronics as a part of my daily routine. If I had drained my phone's power, there were only a handful of people who's phone numbers I had memorized...Mom & Dad (home, work and cell), my brother's cell, my aunt's home phone, and two people from work (and I wasn't 100% confident that I had committed one of them to memory). I couldn't even call my two best friends. In anticipation of my iPad, I've started downloading books for the Kindle app, rather than buying real books. I'd actually been hesitant to do that for a long time, because I struggled with the fact that I couldn't read while the plane was taxiing (which, when I was traveling to Houston, could sometimes be 40 minutes)...and now I have just one more reason to go back to my paperbacks.
As the Great Blizzard of 2011 dies down, I'm safely tucked away for the night, have eaten dinner, and I've been able to cross off two of the items on my "to do" list. Of course, when I went through my emails tonight, I got to add three more to the list, but at least I feel like I've accomplished something. Tomorrow, the client office is open again, and life will start to get back to normal. Anyone who's lived up North knows that after the snow comes the cold, and it's going to get COLD-D-D-D-D tonight, they're saying it will be about -6 without the wind chill when I head out in the morning. As I'm typing, I realize that I brought the snow brush, but left the ice scraper in the other car, so I need to allow myself some extra time to warm up the truck in the morning.
On the bright side, Phil didn't see his shadow today, so Spring should be right around the corner. Since the Milwaukee Zoo cancelled Groundhog Day in Wisconsin, I'm hoping Phil's prediction was for WI as well as PA. I know that it's cold across the country (who'd have thought the Frozen Tundra would actually travel to Dallas with the Pack), so I'm guessing wherever you are, most of you will agree.
Keep warm!
