Chicago Trip

I left work early.. really early (12:00 Noon). Now those who think "wow tht rocks, leaving work so early at client location", well I did have to compensate for it. I went in early (read 7 am) everyday that week. My shuttle to the airport had me waiting and when it finally showed up as expected it was a Mexican driver. Now that is something very common with California. Most drivers, lawn mowers, Janitors, fast food restraunt employees are mexicans. Some say it is the close proximity of the mexican border with california that we find so many mexicans here. But what most people dont know is that California and parts of Texas were originally part of Mexico. California became a US territory only in 1847 after a war :)(and they ask us to exercise restrain). And now California is the most populous state in US and any of them are immigrants.

The plane ride was ok, they don't serve anything other than water and juices on a domestic flight. NO solids.. sucks. As I was cursing myself for not having eaten before boarding the plane I heard the captain announce " Ladies and Gentleman on our right you can have a gr8 Arial view of the Grand Canyon ". Shit!!! Shoud have taken the window seat :(.. Anyways I did get to see some of it and understood exactly the meaning of the word rubberneck.

I got to my friends place at abt 1 am. Some background here. This trip was a reunion of 7 old college friends. Now two of these during the past 4 yrs have gotten married..to each other .. and were playing our hosts. Listening to thier stories of how they got together, convinced each other and the parents and finally got married, had us all bemused.

Over the next 3 days all we did was talk, eat, talk some more, eat some more. Now what did we talk about. well everything under the sun. Starting from Friends (GF/BF), fiancees, work, Old college days, future of India, Arjun Singh, etc.. etc.. All the gossips were interrupted by sessions of IM. Being with old friends made me remember my other grp from work (Miss u guys). And yes we did do some of the normal tourist things of moving around the city. Chicago downtown is cleaner than manhattan, but given a choice I wud prefer to be in Manhattan any day. Being in Chicago also makes you feel as if the Whites have come to visit India.

The trip bak to LA was adventurous to say the least. A storm caused my flight to be delayed till 8:15. I tried to check-in at 7:30, only to realize that they rescheduled the flight at 7:45 and I was too late to check-in. They put me on standby for the next flight at 10:00 pm, but being a long weekend the standby (waiting list) never cleared. So I was stuck in Chicago for an extra day. But I consider everything in Life as an experience and the important thing is to learn from them (Now don't I sound like a philospher). So what did I learn from this fiasco.. Just a few tips to anyone who happens to miss a flight..

1. Get urself on the standby for the next available flight and get urself a backup boarding pass for the next flight with some seats on it.

2. Try to get on a plane flying to an airport close to ur original destination.

3. Try some connecting flights if no direct flights are available.

4. Ask the airlines to book you on some other Airlines. Likelihood of this hapening is pretty low, but still worth a shot.

5. Finally if your flight is delayed keep looking at the monitors regularly for the updated departure time, as these are "Estimated" and can and will change. I learnt it the hard way.

Happy Flying !!!