trip recap and why I hate Delta so much, the sequel

My trip to Chicago was a lot of fun! It was so great being able to see the boy and not having to wait until September. His brother and sister-in-law were nice to me, although his SIL is a little psychotic, so I would not shed any tears over not having to see her again. (When we were in the car just the three of us, she asked TLS and I if either of us had ever had sex and then if we had sex with each other! Umm seriously. MYOB much?) Both TLS and I flew in on Sunday night. We met at the airport (my flight got in around an hour before his did), his brother picked us up, we went to get Starbucks with brother and SIL (twice), checked in to the hotel, and then went for dinner for Thai food. I tweeted about this on Sunday, but there was not a single Starbucks in Laguardia or Midway airports. When I have to get up at 7:45am on a Sunday, I NEED a latte.

On Monday, TLS and I took the train into Chicago and went to the Harry Potter exhibition. You were not allowed to take pictures inside the exhibition, so being the rebel that I am, I took a picture of the "no pictures please" sign. (Picture to come once I can locate that cord thing.) The exhibition was a lot of fun and really well set up. If any of you live close to Chicago and can get to the Museum of Science and Industry before the exhibit closes on September 27th, I highly recommend that you do. If you have any kids or nieces and nephews, you will earn instant cool points for taking them. The exhibition features props from all of the movies. The very first prop is the Sorting Hat. The tour guide asked who wanted to be sorted, so of course I jumped up and down at the chance (picture me jumping up and down raising my hand going me, me, me, me, me!). I got sorted into Slytherin, which TLS had a good laugh about. I told him that it's ok because 1) Draco Malfoy is hot, and 2) I like their colors. Obviously. After the museum, we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We have a list of chain restaurants that we absolutely have to go eat at at least once when we are both together in the States, so we were able to cross one off our list. Chicago is TLS's favorite city in America and he was like a kid in a candy store just seeing everything. The weather was beautiful and so we just walked around after lunch until it was time to head to the game.

Now folks, I am not athletically inclined at all, nor do I know anything about sports. It's a wonder that I know what a baseball even looks like. I have been to two Yankees games in my life (if you're a Sox fan, I don't want to hear it) and love going to games simply for the atmosphere of them. TLS is a diehard Cubs fan and to him, Wrigley Field is the happiest place on earth (to me, it's the inside of a Crumbs bakery), so he was super-excited that we were able to do this together. What made it even better, was that one of the players had been injured and Monday was his first game coming back. The game was FUN. I did have to explain to TLS and his brother that where I come from, we put ketchup on our hot dogs. After the game ended, we all went to Taco Bell. We were going to meet up with KMB for a post-game drink, but we had to take a train back into the suburbs and wouldn't have made the last train in time. (So sorry dear!)

Tuesday, we all went out for breakfast and then I was supposed to fly home. And now begins the story of why MRM hates Delta and why they are so not getting a holiday card from me. My flight was scheduled for 2:15pm out of O'Hare. I got an email from Delta saying that the flight was delayed until 3:46pm. Around 3:21pm, they made an announcement saying that the flight was cancelled due to weather and that everyone should come up to be rebooked. When I got up there, I was put on the same exact flight, 2:15pm out of O'Hare, for Wednesday. This meant I had to 1) take and extra day off work, and 2) spend another night in Chicago. Fortunately my boss was understanding, and TLS and SIL were able to come get me. It was annoying to be delayed for so long, but we were both happy about having an extra night to spend together. When I was rebooked, I asked for a hotel or meal voucher, and was told that Delta does not give out vouchers for weather cancellations. There was a light sprinkling in Chicago, and no weather problems in New York, so I don't buy the excuse that it was cancelled due to weather conditions. On Wednesday morning, I woke up to yet another email from Delta saying that my 2:15pm flight had gotten delayed and would now be leaving at 3:21. A while later, that became 3:46. In TLS's brother's car on the way to the airport, the Delta website already said 4:15pm. After I checked in, the notification board at the gate said 4:30pm. Finally, they made an announcement saying that they would begin boarding at 4:30pm and would take off at 5:00pm. I boarded around 5:00pm and did not take off until roughly 5:15pm, which is exactly 27 hours later from when I was scheduled to depart. Moral of this story: never fly Delta. 27 hour delay and they didn't even feel the need to feed me. You can bet your bottom dollar that I will be composing a lengthy email to their customer service center.

I am now once again trying to catch up on all the blogs, emails, and tweets that I missed. I hope to reply to every one of you soon.

ETA: In all of my anger and rage towards Delta, I forgot to mention another bright spot of my trip. Since my birthday is coming up in just a few days, TLS decided to bring my birthday present with him so that he could give it to me in person. A day or two before I left, I was walking past the Swarovski store (one of my favorite stores) and saw that they had created a line of ladybug jewelry. I emailed him excitedly and he got nervous and told me to just keep walking. I did not have time to make it into the store to buy the necklace before close, which ended up being a good thing, because this is what he gave me:

Isn't it so cute? It combines Swarovski and ladybugs, two of my favorite things. I have worn it every day since then. He saw it in Ireland and thought of me. I'm holding on to him.