Avi's Diary Thingy - ver. 15 - Let That City Take You In...

7:11 a.m.
2002-11-22
The O'Hare Adventure

Well, obviously I survived. I'm not typing this from beyond the grave or at Kinko's after being kicked out. It was actually a rather pleasant evening.

...but let's start at the beginning.

I took the Blue Line to O'Hare, which was a nice experience. You get to see a lot of the city that way. It took about 45 minutes to get there from downtown, but it felt like less, amazingly. I wandered around the airport, following the signs to Terminal 5, where all the international desks are, and even got to take a little train thing like we did in Florida. Finally, I made it to the SAS desk.

There were a few people in line for check-in, so I just waited behind them and asked how I'd go about purchasing a ticket. This one girl--she was quite pleasant--said that their cashier would be in at two, and if I'd wait, she'd flag me when the cashier, Janet, arrived. Seeing as it was about 1:55, I figured I could stand to wait. So I found myself a chair, and waited.

And waited.

For an hour.

Finally, after the check-in line had cleared, I went back and asked the girl if Janet was in. She said yes, told Janet I had been waiting, and directed me to her line. Janet gave some other people their tickets, then got to me. I told her I had no idea what I was doing, but just wanted to know what. She said that she was boarding a flight right now and was very busy, but that I could reserve my seat on a flight over the phone, and then pay for it on the day of my flight. Near tears after waiting an hour just to hear that, I said okay and went to make the call.

It was painless. I got the flight, I got a window seat, and it's all good...except for two things:

1) If I don't pick my ticket up today, the price goes up.

2) They don't accept checks.

Therefore, I have to run around the city again, racing the clock so I'm not late for work, and I have to do it while carrying large sums of money in the wallet I took out for the occasion. Yeah, I'm looking forward to today.

But I left feeling a little freer, wondering what I was going to do when I talked to my mother. We were waiting for the Metra, between two loud, standing trains, and I brought up the fact that when I got my passport the other day, she said "Damn, Abby got her passport." This was more or less her response (in a not so nice tone of voice even though I had made that comment in jest):

"Well, I'm not too happy about the idea. You'll be travelling alone somewhere far away, and it's not a good time to be travelling alone anywhere. I don't know a thing about these people ("But Mom, I've told you lots about them!"), and the money is just too much (*thinks* But it's not and it's my money, so why worry?)...and I get the feeling that you're romantically interested in this boy (*nods*) and he's underage and I don't want you getting in trouble with the law there..."

Then I said, "Okay, well..." and shrugged my shoulders. So I know where she stands in the situation. And I feel sort of bad for basically being all like, "Well, too bad, I'm going", but at the same time, I don't. My life.

We spoke like civilized human beings after that, and even joked around a bit about stuff. When Gabriel called after I got home, I told her that's who I was talking with, and that he said hi and stuff, and she said hi back, and when I told her his comment on her picture, she had responses that weren't just grunts or something. I guess that's a start.

But yeah. I guess that's it. The teen choir dinner was last night as well, but that was the same as it always is--the girls with boyfriends talking about them, the girls without talking about guys they want to date, and Carso going on and on about things people really don't care about. But I got a cafe mocha out of the deal.

I think I'll go study for Art History, so I don't fail too badly. Remind me not to be stupid so often.

Quote for the Day: "...on the way back home, try to mix it up, walk halfway and take the bus..." --"Pretty Good Day", Loose

take you in :: spit you out