Getting up at 6.30am was tough, though, it was made better by the fact that I was off to see my good friend Nicky.  It’s been eight months since she was in sunny Houston for our wedding and, upon hearing that she was coming to the Windy City for two weeks, I had to get a flight!

Thankfully, it was pretty reasonably priced and was sorted out pretty quickly.  (Though she’ll argue that I went only to earn air miles! LOL!)

Col picked me up a Starbucks en route to the airport, dropped me off kerb-side and off I went.  I was fine, for the first 100 feet, until the check-in machine had no recollection of who I was, where I was going or any of my details.  Nightmare!  I felt a twinge of panic. Normally Col is there to figure such things out – he’s my logistics guy.  I guess, the last 4 years of rarely travelling alone, has left me dependent on him.  So, to assert my independence, instead of crying or calling him, I figured it out.  Turns out, the computer was just stupid.  Whoot!

This time, it was less than 100ft before I hit my next speed-bump! In fact, it was more like 2ft! LOL! The security queue was mental and I was stuck there for a while, one elderly couple’s flight was on the 10th of the ‘final boarding call’ wails, over the intercom.  The man asked everyone if he and his wife could skip ahead, most of the ‘go aheads’ came from behind us and not the people he wanted to ‘skip’, but they ploughed ahead to the front of the queue all the same.  When I got through the security scan, there they were at the other side – I’ve no idea how it took them so long, but skipping about 20 (+) minutes of queue didn’t do them much good at all!

Everything else was a breeze, including, my first ever time using a paperless ticket.  Both going through the TSA security check point and boarding the plane.  I was a little hesitant and distrusting of said method of travelling – I mean, there’s something so reassuring about that little piece of paper you clutch to as you go through security.  It’s like a safety blanket.

With my phone, I didn’t have that – what if it doesn’t work? It was a little nerve wracking (the woman in front of me even waited to talk to me about it – she said she’s thought about it, but has never had the nerve to go ahead with it.  She was well impressed that it worked for me, and said she’d consider using it next time!

Look at me – all eco friendly…while flying on a 737!

Quite the juxtaposition, eh?

In spite of departing 30 minutes late, we arrived on time in Chicago O’Hare and my bag was out in good time.  After a lot of research before arriving in Chicago and the recommendation of the hotel, we decided that the best way to get to the hotel was to go by cab.  I came out of the airport and stood in the queue for one, when I told the driver where I wanted to go, he said he didn’t know it (in poor broken English) but knew enough to say ‘Time and a half to go to the Suburbs’, when I replied, ‘how much?’, he said, ‘get in, I’ll check my book’ – and before I knew it, we were off.

As we were driving he hands me his book, tells me he can’t find the hotel I want to go to in the list, and could I help him find it.  While flicking through the book, I discovered that the hotel had changed it’s name and used to be the Radisson.  We were sucking with gas now, he knew where to go, right?

Oh lord! The guy read the directions the whole way there! When we got there, the meter said, $29.75, he looked at me, I said, ‘how much?’, his reply was, ‘uhm, how much is time and a half of that?’ *shakes head*

I calculated it for him and rounded it to $45, handed him $60 and he goes ‘you want change?’ uhm, hell freakin’ YES I want change you crazy man?! lol!  He then made me get my own luggage out of the car and drove off in a huff, cause I didn’t give him a tip!

At the hotel, getting my room key was way easier than I thought it’d be, Nicky had left it behind the desk and the lady just handed it over after seeing my license.  After dumping my bags in the room, I came back down to dip my toe in the hotel restaurant, so to speak.  I ordered a portabello chicken wrap with chips and a drink.  I was seriously STARVING as I’d only had a little pack of nuts and some chips and salsa from United’s ‘savory snack box’ that they charged an arm and a leg for!

When I was done a-munchin’, I took a nap, getting up early after going to bed late had left me knackered!  Nicky got home from work just shy of 6pm, after a big ole cuddle, we headed down to the bar where the hotel’s happy hour was in full swing.  Free beer/wine/soda’s and they feed you as well (though I didn’t imbibe in the hotdog-eating!)

Around 7pm, we bundled in to two cars and headed to a shopping centre that was around 10 miles away.  I don’t have very high driving standards, I’ll get in the car with pretty much anyone, ‘don’t get me killed’ is pretty much my one condition when I’m in the car with someone.

This wasn’t always the case, after a series of car accidents in my teenage years, I developed a severe anxiety when I was in a car with someone.  I flinched, couldn’t look when they were parking, or reversing, had panic attacks – the lot.  Even as recently as when I met Col.  It took a long time to get over it, even with him.  I wouldn’t go to sleep in the car with anyone, I had to watch what was going on at all times.  I’ve gotten a LOT better, especially out here in Houston, cause most people I’m in the car with are SLB Drive Smarrt trained and it’s reassuring.

However, this particular night, I got pretty close to relapse.  The guy behind the wheel shouldn’t have had a license!  He was going at least 20 miles under the speed limit, he was driving so dangerously that we almost got side swiped by a truck, he never checked his blind spot, didn’t stop at red lights, didn’t stop for moving traffic coming towards him…it was painful.

So painful in fact, that I almost made him stop, get out, and let me drive – even though I wasn’t insured on the damn car and it’d have been illegal! (as it turned out he wasn’t strictly legal to drive anyway, so, given that I have a full US and UK license, I’d have been more qualified to drive, than he was!)

It was traumatising to say the least! So much so, that I sent Col the most nasty message I’ve ever sent to him.  I was stressed and pretty convinced I was going to die, so of course, I lashed out at him. *sigh*.  I have, of course, since apologised, but it was a pretty trying evening in the car! I’m also pretty sure he aggravated my back/neck injury with his emergency stops at every few feet!

We got to the shopping centre in one piece though – thankfully! And Nicky and I had a specific list of places we wanted to hit up, Yankee Candle, Sketchers, Lush (for me!), Bath and Body works and Dip N Dots – we had 1 hour, didn’t expect to nail our entire list within that time frame, but we did! AND we picked up some great deals while we were at it!!

Not only that, but we managed to get Nicky some Dip’n’Dots – something she’s been waiting 8 months to try!

After a slightly less horrific drive back to the hotel, we hit up the bar for bar snacks and alcohol.  When I was ordering my drink (Amaretto and diet coke – another Amber influence!), one of the patrons at the bar asked if I’d ever had amaretto and apple juice, I said I hadn’t and he made me agree to trying it my next drink.

I went back to his side of the bar to order the drink – so he could see I was trying it.  In fact, Nicky and I both did – we both enjoyed it (and had a couple! LOL!), as it turns out this guy, Tim, (and his two burly mates, loud and louder) serve in the United States Military, he’s served multiple times in Iraq and currently works in the Pentagon.

I asked him if I could shake his hand and told him I was honoured to meet him (later in the night, he bought me a shot too lol!) Anyways, he was a nice guy, talked to me about various things, including a conversation that Nicky found amusing,

Him ‘I tried that drink in Europe’, to which I replied, ‘we don’t have amaretto in Europe’ (I’d never heard of it til I moved here) and he goes, ‘oh, ok, I could have sworn I had it in Europe, maybe it was somewhere else’ lol!!

It was good fun, meeting new people (most of them work for Allstate and are over from Northern Ireland like Nicky) who had no idea why I was over! LOL!

We were in the bar til almost 1am, just chewin’ the fat and having the craic with a few of the Allstate NI team – who were all very nice indeed!