i was going to bed and then before i knew it i had been working on this stupid site for more than three hours. i was going to switch styles and then i decided i didn’t really like the layout of the new style. so i guess i’m sticking with this one, even though it’s starting to look a bit too crowded.

to recap the last few days:

monday 12/18 through wednesday 12/20 - incredibly stressful days. i was putting together my first media plan to present to the client. of course it was a decently easy plan but i was still incredibly freaked out and nervous. walking the client through everything was the scariest part, so freaking intimidating. it scares the shit out of me that i planned out millions of dollars in advertising. now it’s time to start working on the next media plan for ‘07, hopefully this one won’t be as stressful.

thursday 12/21 - nothing exciting. worked until 6ish. went home and procrastinated. by 11pm i still hadn’t packed for my trip back to texas so i figured i would just stay up all night since i was going to have to be up at 3am start getting ready to leave any way. i was way too afraid of missing my flight.

friday 12/22 - i wake up at 3am. leave for the airport at 4:10am. i always take the train to the airport, which is why i left so early. i take the red line downtown, that takes about 40 minutes. of course i get off the train at the lake station because that’s where the tunnel to the blue line is. of course i forgot the tunnel is closed for renovation. knowing the blue line station is only a couple of blocks away, i walk up to the street level and start walking. of course it’s starting to rain and i don’t have my umbrella. i end up just turning around because i don’t want to get too soaked. i go back down to the red train station. i have to wait for another southbound train to come to go three more stops and take the other connecting tunnel to the blue line. by the time i get over to the blue train station and catch an outbound blue train it’s 5:15ish, i’m way behind schedule. the blue train ride to o’hare takes at least 45 minutes. it took almost an hour due to delays.

it’s 6:15am and i’m racing upstairs to check in and get my bags checked to make my flight. of course i check in at 6:17am and it doesn’t allow me to check my bags because i’ve missed the 45 minute cut-off. the lady at the self check-in desk is a total bitch and won’t help me and instead tells me to go to the service counter. the service counter line is at least 45 minutes long and the security line is at least an hour long. at this point i realize i’m going to miss my flight.

luckily, the lady at the counter is incredibly awesome and rebooks me to dfw. the only problem is that i have to transfer in louisville now. the flight from o’hare to louisville is delayed, of course. the delay keeps growing and i start growing concerned that i won’t make my connection to dallas at the louisville airport. the gate agent pretty much tells me that once i get to louisville they will have to rebook me on another flight/series of flight to get me to dallas.

i had to take american eagle and that has to be one of the scariest experiences of my life. i’m terribly afraid of heights and normally i can stand flying because when you’re in the large jets you don’t feel that much of the flight. in those small jets you can feel EVERYTHING. as the jet was climbing to cruising altitude i swore the engines were just going to give out and the plane was just going to fall to the ground. of course the fact that before the flight they told us they were going to have to bump 6 people from the flight because they were going to be over the maximum weight didn’t make me feel any better, especially since they didn’t bump anyone. i will avoid flying on a small jet as much as possible from here on out. i seriously thought i was going to die.

i get to louisville and it’s 20 minutes after my flight to dallas was scheduled to depart. i go off to try and find one of those rows of tv screens with departures on it. louisville is a super small airport and i’m walking down the terminal only to realize that i’ve passed four of the departure screens without noticing it. the airport is seriously so small that it only needs one tv screen to list all the departures. i walk back to my arrival gate and find that my connecting flight was delayed and was about to depart. luckily i end up on it and on my way dallas in less than 10 minutes.

i get to dallas but of course my checked luggage isn’t there. i wasn’t on the ground in louisville long enough for them to transfer it to the other flight. i leave the airport with the hope that i’ll get my luggage within the next 24 hours. i finally get to my parents house around 5pm. at this point i’m exhuasted. i had planned on getting there by noon and taking a nice nap. at this point i just crash for most of the evening, with some sporadic nintendo playing throughout the evening.

saturday 12/23 - i get my luggage in the early afternoon.

saturday 12/23 through tuesday 12/26 - most of my trip back home was spent just relaxing. it was nice to not have to do anything or be anywhere.

tuesday 12/26 - had dinner with megan l. from high school. hadn’t seen her in about three years. had a great time catching up with her. especially happy to discover that she’s moving to las vegas next month. now i have a real reason to go to vegas in the near future. good times.

wednesday 12/27 - i make my 3pm flight back to chicago with no problems.

the last couple of days have been spent just relaxing. i need to motivate myself to clean my room, that’s a goal for this weekend. not sure what i’m going to do on new year’s eve. thinking i might just end up staying home. actually now that i think about it, i don’t think i’ve done anything on new year’sneve for the last few years.

i’m tired of typing.

until later.

I have made it to texas. It took me 4 times longer than it should have but i am here. Of course i have no luggage though because i checked it and it got lost when i had to transfer, though that is another story for later. Hopefully i will get it tomorrow.

i got my nintendo wii today from my parents. It is the most amazing thing ever. Tomorrow i need to go get more controllers and a memory card. Super mario bros from the old school NES will be released on christmas day, i cant freaking wait.

i would type more but my thumbs hurt and i have to conserve laptop battery power until i am reunited with my luggage (power cords in suitcase).

until later.
..ryan

Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

Oh what a morning it has been. I can’t wait to write about it when i finally get to dallas. Soooooo many good stories.

Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

I wonder what it is like to go to bed at a decent hour two nights in a row. It’s been so long i don’t think i remember. I am slowly switching over from being a night owl. I’m not totally opposed to becoming a morning bird, i just also enjoy being a night owl. It would perfect if i could be both and just sleep in the middle of the day. Actually the worst parts are the day are about 4am - 10am and 3pm - 7pm. I think i have an overactive mind. Too much thinking, not enough sleep.

Time for sleep! (hopefully)
Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

the good: i finally got my blackberry account for my phone straightened out.
the bad: i’ve gone from getting my email instantly delivered to my phone to having a delay of anywhere from 3-10 minutes. now of course you’re thinking to yourself “why in the world would that be too long of a wait?” it’s not really, but oddly enough i feel a bit behind even with that miniscule time delay.
the good: having the blackberry internet service account enables me to pull email off the work email server without being on the blackberry enterprise server. this alone is reason enough to keep this method even with the incredibly slight e-mail delay.

the good: the weather so far this winter (even though winter hasn’t really started yet) hasn’t been as bad as i would have imagined
the bad: it’s only really snowed once. ONCE. i need the snow.
the good: the winter is just about to begin.

and now for the other stuff …

so this past week i was thinking about getting a netflix subscription. the irony is that today i received a code from a magazine rep that gives me a month of membership. so i’ve opened up a new netflix account but i don’t know what to add. i’m hesitant to add anything until i know what i want to watch this weekend since i’ll probably get the first three movies i choose. this is too complicated. i need movie recommendations. everyone who has netflix should add me to their friend’s list [ ryan @ ryaninchicago . com (without the spaces, of course)].

i had to use my work mailing address for my movies because mail service to my place of residence just isn’t reliable. the united states postal service must route everything through india or china first before it gets here. that reminds me, i have a package waiting for me at the post office. while i haven’t received a final notice, i imagine it has already been returned back to the sender. now that i think about it i also haven’t received my debit card yet either. hmmm. i will have to make a note of that for later.

maybe i’ll write again after i’ve put the computer away.

good night for now.

i feel cheated. it’s so cold yet i’m seeing so little snow. it’s either too warm or too cold to snow. it snowed last friday which was great.

rewind …

on wednesday i had wine at this great wine bar in andersonville. seriously an amazing place. small and comfortable.

on thursday there was an outing at dave & buster’s with a&e networks. wasn’t expecting to have tons of fun, but it ended up being a rather entertaining evening.

friday was rather exciting. it had been sleeting as i was returning home from the previously mentioned outing and that slowly turned into snow as the evening progressed. i woke up friday morning to a decent amount of snow. it was great walking to the train and having the snow fall down around me. by the time i was nearing downtown the snow was just coming down. the subway was closed for a short while so i was stuck on the red train which ran on the elevated tracks. it didn’t end up stopping until i had gotten further south than i need to be. so i had to take the brown train back north to be semi-near work. from the brown/purple station i had to walk several blocks to work (the blue path is my normal path, red path was my forced path through the snow).

it wouldn’t have been so bad had i been wearing waterproof shoes. the curbs near the corners were the worst. as soon as i got to work i had to take off my shoes and stick them on the heater to dry. other than that the snow was great. i wish it wouldn’t have stopped snowing so early in the day. luckily the snow has been on the ground since then. it’s fun to walk around in, it feels so wintery.

that evening i ended up back at the wine bar, but this time for martinis. they were pretty much the best martinis i’ve ever had in my life.

saturday was a quiet day.

on sunday i went to see happy feet. great movie. a bit sad at moments but still great.

that brings me to this week. i’m awaiting another snowfall. it’s getting amazingly cold. i was standing on the platform at the train station this morning and i checked the temperature … an amazing 11 degrees (keep in mind that the high this past sunday was 17). that’s just not right. it’s going to be a very cold winter, but luckily i think it’s going to be quite a fun winter. there’s just something about winter that is so great. there’s just something in the air.

enough of the boring chit-chat. i’m off to bed.

good night.