Midway Hotel

Before going off to breakfast Lindsey takes another look at the computer printout describing our 4 pm flight to Chicago.

The plane leaves at 1:45, she announces.

Impossible, I say; it leaves at four. Or a little later. Let me see that.

She's right, of course. We go to Cafe Fanny for our usual cafe au lait (still creamy and rich after all these years), and go to our meeting, and leave early to get to the airport on time.

When we check in we learn that our flight doesn't leave until 4:45. What's this, then, I ask, waving my printout in front of the deskclerk.

This, well, why this, this is nothing, he says. We shrug, check our bags, and stroll the airport. We read the paper. We have a salad at a deli in Terminal One. The Caesar is okay, the Chinese chicken better, L. says. We read some more. We discuss things we don't quite agree about. I listen to the iPod.

The plane finally takes off, with us in it. Some typing, some reading, and one act of a Mozart opera later -- Mitridate, if you want to know -- we're at Midway. We wait for the luggage, which never appears. Investigating further, I find it set aside. How did this happen, I ask. It came on an earlier flight, I'm told.

We get the car and drive to the Sheraton Midway. The parking lot is full. I double-park, and an attendant tells me I can park it in the Office Depot lot, a couple of football fields away. I'll double-park while I'm registering, I tell him, and he shrugs. I nearly break my wrist trying to open the front door, which is locked. Then I find another front door. I look for the reception desk, cunningly hidden around a corner.

After checking in I go back to the double-parked car. Two hotel employees are just ahead of me. They're annoyed: they won't be able to leave their parking spaces; my car is blocking them. I move the car; they leave; I take one of their places.

The wi-fi doesn't work. I go to the debug routine on my web browser, a routine I've never used, and discover the wi-fi connection demands a username and password. The patient desk clerk furnishes same: Sheraton. Midway. So here I am, blogging.

Tomorrow we go to Wrigley Field. We shoulda been there today! Cubs won, 14-zip! Tomorrow's game should be interesting; I hope it isn't too retaliatory.