Windy City Reflections

The last time I traveled for work was Dallas, Texas for MapInfo training earlier this year. At the time I was fairly miserable traveling alone. The class was very small, only 3 people (including myself) and the other two students were local. That left me with nobody to hang out with or go out with, and I thought of looking up or contacting my friend Jason in Dallas, but I didn't get around to it. I was lonely because I missed Marie terribly, I'd always hated being away from her because I loved her so much.

This last week I went to Chicago, Illinois for a Web Content Management Conference. It was snowing when the plane landed at Chicago, Midway and I took the CTA Orange Line to State/Lake. I walked to my hotel for a half mile (across the river) in the snow. I checked in, dried off, and went to dinner and to Macy's and bought some christmas ornaments. The next day I went to the conference. It was very good, all about Wiki's, Blogs, Social networking and how they can be used internally and externally in a corporate environment. I went out to dinner with a friend from the conference, Dan, and then we went to Hooter's for a couple of beers and to the ESPN Zone for a short time. I flew out the next day, the skies were clear.

This time I didn't have anyone to miss, anyone back home waiting for me to hug me when I got off the plane. It was a lot different than ever before. When I went to Disney earlier this year, it made me sad. This time, I was just null, there wasn't any sadness nor any happiness about it. It was just life.

I bought a book for my trip, The Book of Lost Things. It's very good, I highly recommend it. I finished it yesterday (Sorry Courtney!).