There and Back Again

Every year, I hop a plane to D.C. for a big event my company does. I'm one of the lucky pups who gets to work his ass off, there. This year, the kickoff date was April 26.

This year, the timing was perfect. Lorelei's niece, C.C., was getting married on April 25 at 10 a.m. So I flew out the evening of the 24th to Salt Lake City. Lorelei drove down from Portland and shared a hotel room with me. We went out that night with C.C.'s two sisters, one of whom brought her hubby. (Last time I'd seen them was at their wedding.) My friend malkross and his new (to me, anyway) girlfriend also joined us as we all congregated at a coffee shop. Yes, Utah does actually have coffee shops. And, as of very recently, they also have legal homebrewing. Go figure.

The wedding the following morning was very nice, and I got to see the bride's brother and parents, as well as Lorelei's mother and her now ex-husband. Yeah, the one who, during their split, was rude as hell toward me when I went to the aforementioned other wedding.

I never really held that against him, honestly. I knew how much pain he was going through, and he's the type who needs to deflect it onto others. So I greeted him no differently than I would have if that had never happened... shook his hand, asked about his daughter and her family, and so on. At the end of the wedding, before I had to dash back to the airport, I said goodbye to him, then the rest. And when I turned to go, there he was again... for a second goodbye. He was clearly choked up, his voice quavering as he shook my hand again and said, "I'm really glad you're doing well."

Unexpected... but appreciated.

Jacquie picked me up at the airport in Washington, as she did last year. It was fairly late in the evening, so we didn't do anything this night, just headed to the hotel.

The event itself? Probably the best one, yet. Our company Prez said last week that this was the first one of these events in which he didn't receive some sort of complaint from a member. High five.

Got to do some fun stuff there, though. Got together with Lauren, the daughter of one of my co-workers, who I met for the first time on this trip last year. She's super-cool. Got to meet Lauryn, a new employee in our D.C. office, who's also super-cool. Maybe it's the name.

Once the business part was over, Jacquie drove me up to my friends' house north of Philadelphia before she returned home to Harrisburg. I stayed with Brent & Gina and their two boys for four nights. We had some great pizza and cheesesteaks... and Brent and I hit Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia, touted as one of the best beer bars in the world. And I was certainly wowed. They've got a beer list that was probably eight pages long, and none of them were crap beers. Mostly, they were Belgian ales, my favorites.

Brent is a die-hard Yuengling fan. And it's a decent brewery, I'll admit. But nothing like the stuff served here. I ordered him two beers that afternoon: a Piraat and a Delerium Tremens. He liked the Piraat and loved the DT. Mission accomplished.

One day, we drove up to Wilkes-Barre, where we got together with another dear friend, beccapooka, and her husband. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant and kicked around a bookstore and used record store for a while. Then it was back "home."

I'd planned to get together with siannon, but she was really sick. (Hope it's not the pig flu, hon!)

Then on Sunday, it was time to come back to Sac.

My flight was scheduled to leave Philly around 5:30 p.m. This did not happen. Oh, we were on the runway, prepared for takeoff. But then a woman in the row in front of me started feeling numb. Dunno if it was a stroke or, as she believed, an extreme allergic reaction to something. Either way, we turned around and headed back to the gate, where EMTs came and took her from the plane. By the time we were back to the runway, well over an hour had passed from our scheduled departure time.

And when we landed? EMTs came on the flight again to remove yet another sick person. (No details on that one, but I know a bunch of us were starting to wonder what was in the air.)

Naturally, most of us with connecting flights missed them. And because it was late in the day, there weren't any other flights from Salt Lake City to Sacramento. So they ended up putting us up in a hotel and giving us two $7 food vouchers - one for dinner and one for breakfast.

Given the late hour, though, the only food we could get at the hotel (without cabbing it to a restaurant) was Domino's. I'd rather go hungry for a night than eat Domino's, which is what I did.

Oh, I should point out that, by the time we got to our hotel, it would've been about the same time I'd have arrived home in Sacramento. Good times.

And they weren't over, yet.

My flight out of SLC was at 8:40. But the only open shuttle the hotel had for me was at 6:00. Talk about overkill. I got some good reading done in the terminal, though, before leaving.

Long story ... well ... less long ... I got home at 10:30 Monday morning, when I should've gotten home at 10:30 Sunday night.

At any rate, it's nice to be back. Lots of work waiting for me in the orifice, but I expected as much.