We left SHS in a tiny, gold school-issued minivan and promptly proceeded to head towards the hotel where we’d be staying the night before we had our flight to Chicago. The hotel ended up being a very crappy, indeed, Comfort Inn with peeling wallpaper and poor lighting.
We got up at 3:30 AM the next morning and went to Kansas City International (KCI) Airport, which I guess is now MCI, whatever the “M” stands for I don’t know - nor do I really care. Our piece of shit (POS) “travel guide” wasn’t really living up to his name as he refused to arrive any more than an hour early to the airport, and I was severely perturbed at the idea that I would be boarding later because of it. After that whole tuberculosis scare, I think I have a right to be angered.
Oh, good lord. There’s a load of idiots out in the hallway making a ruckus. Wonder how many beers those Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) asshats have had tonight? I give them two minutes to be quiet, or I’m calling the front desk and there will be consequences.
Okay. I called front desk, who forwarded me to security, who will be sending someone up in a few minutes.
So, back on course, right. We ended up getting in Group B on Southwest Airlines, meaning we were in the second group to be boarded. I encouraged our group to get in line immediately so that we could board as soon as possible, and it’s good that we did: we barely got rows to ourselves as it was. The flight was fairly uneventful. I got quite a few photos in-flight and so I’m looking forward to those when I get back. When we got off the flight, our “travel guide” herded us all to get our luggage and then on to a tour bus. A tour bus. Then he forgot someone/something about ten minutes away and then made the tour bus go back and fix his mistake. Way to make our first twenty minutes in Chicago memorable, “travel guide”.
Despite that, I was completely excited. Chicago is very exciting and I love all the architecture here. Jake and I were taking photos from the very minute we stepped off the plane. It was a beautiful day, albeit a bit hot, and we walked up and down the Magnificient Mile - which is lots of shops that we don’t have in lil’ ol’ Kansas. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and it was wonderful, as it always is. I was extremely, extremely pissed off however. Chicago as you may or may not know is home to my very beloved Smashing Pumpkins. They performed their last concert before they broke up here. So I figured, with guitars and memoriabilia from the likes of such greats as Shirley Manson, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Jimi Hendrix here… surely somewhere they would have something from either the Smashing Pumpkins as a whole or at least one of the band members. I was disappointed, however. I was searching the walls for anything but didn’t get anything. I did get lots of pictures of Shirley Manson’s guitar, though, because she is pretty much a rock goddess to me. Oh, my, I nearly shit my pants when I saw it. I was looking at a wall of Hard Rock Pins and just happened to look up and there it was - SHIRLEY MANSON - wow. Just wow. She touched that guitar, she signed it, it was wonderful.
Now if only it would have been Corgan’s/Chamberlain’s/Wretzky’s/Iha’s………………….
I got lots of walking in and I think I plan on going back down there sometime tomorrow to look at a particular jacket I want to get. I was thinking about getting it when I went there earlier today but it was $37, which I realize is a very cheap price for such a jacket - regularly $78 - but I didn’t want to spend that much, either way. But it’s a cute jacket and it would be very nice to wear over clothes during winter as it’s both long sleeved and long in general. Not to mention it makes me look as if I was fashion conscious without me having to put out much effort. Oh, la la.
The Internet isn’t working at this hotel. Well, let me take that back. It’s working, but you have to pay $14/night/room for it. We’re staying here for six days, there’s no way I’m going to pay $14 for every night we’re here. Especially for the service we’ve been given. After we got back from shopping, we went back to the expensive hotel we were staying at, otherwise known as the Hyatt. They still did not have any of our rooms ready, despite being several hours after when they were supposed to be ready. To make it worse they apparently decided to give FBLA groups rooms with one bed. A single bed for the four people that would stay in each room. How can you expect people, especially guys, to sleep in one bed? You’re essentially making them pay to sleep on the floor which is incredibly unacceptable. Stanley bitched at them, though, and our room managed to get two double beds. We’re all okay now.
After the drama with the rooming situation we just sort of hung out in the newly acquired rooms and relaxed. It was wonderful. My feet were killing me.
There was one last event of today. We went to see “Wicked”, the musical. Not being a fan of musicals - the excessive singing bothers me like a teenybopper girl with a bag the size of a small T-Rex, low-cut clothing that barely qualifies as a wash cloth, and ten inch high heels with manufactured, torn-up jeans - I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed it. Thoroughly. I have to admit I was a bit uneasy about having to walk back to our hotel from the Ford Oriental Theatre, but we made it out okay and nobody was mugged or was the victim of vehicular manslaughter.
I’m now back in the room, listening to the now nicely quiet atmosphere of the fourteenth floor (otherwise known as the thirteenth floor in disguise, as hotels generally skip the thirteenth floor for fear of bad luck). I think I’ll go to sleep now because we have to get up at 7:15AM to go on our little tour with the “tour guide” in a tour bus which is bound to be very much “exciting”.