Itinerary for the Equinox

6am EST Wake up in New Haven, Connecticut. Take shower. Finish reading Northrop Frye's The Educated Imagination.
7:15am EST Wake up son. Finish packing.
7:30am EST Leave hotel room. Find that the hotel has had herbal tea in the lobby all along. Make tea.
7:45am EST Catch taxi to airport. Drink tea while talking with taxi driver about the weather.
8:00am EST Arrive at airport only to find it filled with medievalists. Eat yummy little bread loaf left over from lunch the day before at Claire's Corner Copia.
8:50am EST Board plane with "Zone 3" to sit in row 7 out of 9. Note that passengers include three Chicago medieval historians (counting self), plus at least four other Midwest medievalists.
9:15am EST Take off. Flight time approximately 4o minutes, plus time to circle over Philadelphia waiting to land. Read about gardens in Northrop Frye's The Great Code.
10:10am EST Land in Philadelphia.
10:25am EST Get shuttle bus to change terminals.
10:45am EST Get tuna wraps at food stand next to departure gate. Wonder if will later regret tuna.
11:10am EST Board plane along with other Chicago medievalists. This time sit row 5 at the bulkhead. Argue with flight attendant about where to put purse.
11:30am EST Take off. Flight time includes long nap leaning on son's head so less reading.
12:45pm CST Land at Chicago O'Hare. Make way to baggage claim.
1:10pm CST Eat last half of tuna wrap, collect bags. Ride escalators up two floors to the train stop. Ride shuttle train to parking lot. Get on bus to ride to further parking lot. Find car.
1:30pm CST Follow signs out of airport parking lot to the I-90. Lose signs. Stop for directions at son's insistence. Be told to "take Higgins." Have no idea where Higgins is. Drive in the general direction of the freeway. Find tollway, but no way to get on.
2:05 pm CST Stop for directions a second time. Stomach now hurts from tuna wrap. Follow second set of directions to "stay on this road for 5 miles until you get to Arlington Heights Road." Wonder whether it matters that the road forks, changes name at least twice and then goes through a small residential neighborhood after all of the other traffic veers right onto Higgins. Find Arlington Heights Road. Cross Higgins again. Find tollway. Go west.

3:00pm CST Stop at Des Plaines Oasis. Get gas. Get espressso brownies (one for me, one for son) and green tea latte to help settle stomach. Listen to Jethro Tull's Living in the Past.
3:45pm CST Arrive at Old Wagon Road after scenic drive along river. Hear beautiful sound of doggie chorus.
3:47pm CST Go inside to greet wriggling mass of doggie happiness, so excited she can barely hold still. Learn that while she has been ever so good, very easy to take care of, getting along beautifully with the other dogs, she has never been this excited. Watch puppy play with her mother while hearing about the basketball games.
4:15pm CST Load up car with son and puppy sitting in the back seat. Drive south and then east. Listen to Jethro Tull's Stormwatch.
6:25pm CST By some miracle of traffic (or, rather, absence thereof) arrive home in time to make it to puppy class. Have son insist on taking all of the luggage inside himself rather than leaving it in the car until after puppy class. Find that there is time after all to go inside and get coat because it's actually rather cold outside.
7:00pm CST Go to puppy class. Have puppy do amazingly well because she has not had time for dinner and will do most anything for treats. Practice puppy ping-pong, walking on loose leash, heeling and not tugging on leash to get to treats.
8:10pm CST Eat toast and grapes. Feed puppy. Watch puppy chase cat. Watch son practice writing with new calligraphy pen. Read Father Brown stories.
8:30pm CST Take puppy out for pee & poop. Forget flashlight and treats, but manage to come back in both with empty puppy and bag of poop.
8:45pm CST Thank neighbor for taking care of cat. Learn that cat has been amazingly friendly, too.
9:10pm CST Tussle with son over who gets to hold the puppy. Put puppy in crate with treat. Go to bed.
9:30pm CST Say prayers of thankfulness for everything that happened today. Fall asleep reading more Father Brown.

Comments

  1. BodhibadgerMarch 22, 2010 at 5:46 PM

    I LOVE Claire's! It was there when I was an undergrad. Wow, long time, eh? Glad you liked it.

    C. wants to know what puppy ping pong is. I insist it does not involve batting the puppy back and forth across a table...

    I am very impressed that you can wrap up a day mostly consumed by travel with anything productive. For me, the travel would suck up all energy and leave me barely able to tumble the dirty clothes from the suitcase to the washer...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fencing BearMarch 22, 2010 at 7:47 PM

    Claire's was great! I ate there three times in as many days. And I bought the cookbook. Soon, soon, we will have a kitchen again!

    Puppy ping-pong is a game about learning to come when called. Two or three humans take turns calling the puppy by name and then giving her a treat when she comes. No bouncing puppies involved, except under their own power!

    Um, clothes? Oh, yes, I should do something about the laundry today...

    ReplyDelete

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