Traveling Blues

I'm out of town for a work conference right now, and not exactly having the time of my life. For starters, I had to leave my house at 3:30 to get to the airport on time. Why so early? The airport I had to fly out of is 2 hours from my house. Why so far? If I flew from the airport closer to my house, I'd be stuck in Minneapolis until Sunday. This was the only way I could get home on Saturday night.

So I left at 3:30 and made the long ass drive. First flight was fine, uneventful, had the whole row to myself to stretch out. Second flight (Detroit to St. Paul) was a train wreck. I had the pleasure of being on a flight with about 100 members of a 55+ travel group headed to Hawaii. Good for them! Except... they couldn't hear the flight attendant's instructions so everything took forever and was delayed. Not just because of the 55+ issue, but because they were worse than a bunch of high schoolers! All giggly and rambunctious and LOUD. It was annoying, but they looked like they were having fun, so I tried to just let it go. It was difficult because I was starving! I only had 15 minutes between flights and the lines at the food places were way too long.

The flight itself finally started, and I thought I was good to go. Not so much. The weather conditions were horrible, so we were bouncing and bumping around the entire time. I've never puked on a plane, but I came very close. Probably because I had an empty stomach. We finally landed in one piece and it took 45 minutes to get OFF the plane, again thanks to the giant travel group. Oh well. At least I got some of those awesome Delta Biscoff cookies.

I used the conference guide to get on the Light Rail, which was fine, except that they neglected to print the directions to the center from the light rail stop. I had a handy dandy map, but it took me a while to find a street sign and then longer to figure out which way the streets were going. All the while, it's 30 degrees and freaking SNOWING. It's a freakish 80 degrees back home, and I'm getting snowed on. Minneapolis is connected by Skyways, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out where an entrance was. I was also accosted by some crazy guy in the street yelling at an invisible foe. It was special.

Finally found my way into the Skyway, but holy cow it's like a freaking corn maze. It took me forever to find my way to the hotel, and when I got there they didn't have the room ready yet, even though I was promised early check-in. At this point, I had been up for 9 hours and eaten four cookies and a fruit leather. I bailed on the first set of conference sessions and enjoyed the tastiest chicken salad bagel sandwich EVER. Plus chips. It was the best tasting food on earth.

Thanks to the hotel issue, I attended the afternoon sessions in yoga pants and my formal coat. Now I'm back in my hotel room on a break, and I need to get dressed. All I want to do is nap, but I had a cup of coffee to warm me up about an hour ago so of course I'm wired. (but it was a salted caramel latte. and it was really freaking tasty. totally worth it)

ANDPLUSALSO, one of the sessions that I really should be at is from 7:15-8:45 this evening. Central Time. WAY past my bedtime. WHO MADE THIS SCHEDULE??