I'm in Chicago

Well here I am in Chicago. Actually that's a lie, I started writing this while still in flight over WI. Or at least I think that's where I was. I had the most turbulence I've ever had on an airplane of that size (a 737). The Big Dipper was my companion. I will never understand people who aren't enraptured with takeoffs. I absolutely love that feeling while you are still on the ground and you can feel how fast you are moving! How you can sleep or read instead of staring, enraptured, out the window is beyond me.

Crazy! We just barely got up to cruising altititude and they announced that we would soon be beginning our descent to Chicago! I figured I'd better take their advice and go to the bathroom. One whole wall in the bathroom from the waist up was mirror! I wonder if that is for mile-high club members? Sexy! Anyway I got back to my seat and hadn't even finished the half a can of ginger ale they gave me before they came around with the garbage bags.

So now I am in O'Hare airport. I saw a security dude and he had what I at first thought was an Israeli flag patch on his jacket and I wondered what was up with that. Then I realized it was that stupid Chicago flag. D'oh! Why the heck do they need a stupid flag, anyway??

So then I rode the driverless tram, which was cool, to the international terminal. I tried to go through security and the woman told me they wouldn't let me through. I said I didn't understand and she told me almost the exact same thing again, "Dey won't let you through. Dey want their own ticket. You need to exchange your ticket." After calmly saying I didn't understand a couple more times, and her continuing to say the same thing, she finally yelled at me to go back to Asiana. At least she told me they didn't open til 9pm. Jeeze, lady, I'm sorry you aren't articulate enough to say, "In the quarter second that I looked at your United Airlines boarding pass, I was able to read the secret code that told me that it was really an Asiana Airlines flight, and even though United already gave you a boarding pass, you need to exchange it for an Asiana one." Sheesh. Maybe I'd be bitchy too if customers were contantly calmly telling them they didn't understand me becuase I was unable t
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So the international terminal at O'Hare is surprisingly devoid of places to sit down outside of the secured area. Actually all the terminals are. I took the tram back to the previous terminal, since I had an hour to kill and I realized that there were the same number of chairs there (about 30). I had to walk the entire length of the terminal to find a free spot. Even Minneapolis is better than that! And it's a slow Saturday night. There's almost no space between where the lines form and the edge of the terminal. I'd hate to see this place on a busy weekday! So it's about 8:30 now. I am going to call Ma & Pa before heading back. I'm starting to get hungry. At least if I have to eat it will kill some time. I don't know how I am going to make it til 1am when my flight leaves!

An hour and a half later...

Ok, I am finally at the gate for my flight. The Asiana line took about 45 minutes to get through. It was a long line but I didn't think it would take that long! After that I had to discard my tap water and go through security. The Dragon lady greeter was gone, thank goodness. Security was fast but they had to test my camera for some reason. The dude who did it was nice and said something about how they were warned about it because they thought it was a video camera, although I had told them it was not. Obviously they can't take my word for it, but I'm still not sure why they had to test it. I guess maybe they didn't send it through the X-Ray machine? I thought maybe they were doing an explosives test or something. I couldn't really tell what he was doing. I didn't see him open every zippered compartment (and there are quite a few) but I was also busy putting my belt and shoes back on and refilling my pockets with their copious contents.

So Ma made a good suggestion that I have a Chicago dog at the airport but I think maybe that place was outside security? I suppose I could go back through. There are absolutely no stores or vending machines down here. I don't know how O'Hare International can be so sucky. The 'dog place will probably be closed by the time I go back. Although I have plenty of time...

I guess I will sign off now. I will try to attach my one photo although I tested that before and it seems like it didn't accept my gigantic image file, but now I can't remember(ok apparently it was just too big to send). So the next time y'all hear from me will be almost a day from now, and possibly longer. Ciao! Oh wait, that's the wrong language. I'll leave you with a farewell greeting that is truly international: kbye!