Chicago - Day 1

Several years ago, when taking one of my first business trips from Boston, I had booked a cab to pick me up and take me to the airport at 4 AM. Yet, the cab never showed up, even as I called the cab company repeatedly and they assured me that the driver was "just ten minutes away". I wish I could remember what cab company it was, so that I could tell all of my friends and remind them never to use that cab company. Ever after that day, I never got cabs to the airport again, but rather simply drove my car and parked it in the long-term parking lot.

Yet, without a car now to drive to the airport, I needed to catch a cab. And while I couldn't remember the cab company that caused me such agony all of those years ago, at least I remembered the cab company that had saved my bacon that morning: Green Cab Co. I'd gone running out onto the street at 4:45 AM, absolutely going mad with panic that I was about to miss my 6 AM flight. And then I spotted a cab at the kerb, with a cabbie obviously enjoying a peaceful morning coffee before beginning his shift. I yelled down the street to him, "I'll give you $40 if you can get me to Logan in 15 minutes!" (Given that an average cab fare to Logan at the time was merely $20, you can see the premium I was offering).

I still bless that cabbie to this day, because he definitely earned his $40 that morning. He got me to Logan in record time, and I went screeching up to the check-in desk, and successfully checked in for my flight with something like 2 minutes to spare.

So when I had to order a cab that I could count on to show up at 4 AM, I was suspicious as to whether it would work, but I figured I might as well go with Green Cab Co. again. And would you believe it? At 4 AM, on the dot, there was a cab outside my cousin's house. Green Cab Co., I love you all over again.


I got to the airport and got myself a breakfast burrito, and then got on the flight, where my three hours of sleep totally kicked in. I just passed out for the entire flight, and don't remember a thing about it.

When I arrived in Chicago, it turned out that I was sharing a limo out to Chicago with someone else. I wish they'd warned me, but that was fine enough, although I was somewhat surprised when the girl pretty much immediately pulled out a magazine and settled down to read for the entire hour's ride. Seemed kind of anti-social, but I guess not everyone is a chatterbox like me...

I arrived, checked into my room (it was barely bigger than the single bed in it), and then went down to try to get into the Woodlands office, hoping to catch a ride with someone there.

Now most of my company's offices have a reception desk, where you can go in, request a security badge, and gain access to the rest of the building. This place, however, had no such thing. Hence, I ended up wandering around the outside of the building, wondering how on earth I could gain entry to it, given that I didn't have an access badge. My friend Shelley even called me randomly at that point, asking, "Where are you?" And I told her, "I'm stuck outside in the parking lot of a random office park building that I can't get into!"

Finally, fortuitously, one of the guys on my team called me asking where I was, and came outside to let me in. Thank goodness!

The guy then gave me a ride to the Senior Executive's house where we were having our training for the day. First impressions of everyone were interesting, so I'll give you a rundown:

Bryan - The one guy on the team my age, although I think we're at different points in our lives personally. He's already married and was in the middle of the process of buying a house, seeming to move from suburbia to suburbia in one smooth transition. I caught the telltale sign of a diabetes monitor as well, which I guess was impressive, that I'd had no inkling that he suffered from the disease before this.

Bob - The one guy I've liked most from the get-go on this team, and that impression remained on this trip. He's a bit guy in that he's about 6'5", although people tell me that previously, he'd been big as in "seriously overweight". He looks good now, although he did talk about how he'd changed his life with Weight Watchers, although I couldn't quite imagine him as overweight. Good job Weight Watchers, I guess! It was funny too, as he greeted me with a big giant hug, which given that I am so used to the restrained kissing on each cheek in the UK, took me by surprise.

Mike - A jovial guy I've worked with on projects previously but have never met in person, I was surprised when he greeted me with a simple nod and said, "Yeah, we've met before." It took quite some convincing to assure him that we'd never met in person, but had only worked together with web cams. "Are you sure?" he asked. I guess one more argument for our brave new world of working with web cams, he seemed so utterly convinced that we'd met in person before.

Sarah - My counterpart on the team, supposedly does the same sort of work I do, but in truth I have no idea what she really does. A somewhat large person, she seems nice enough, but I think because she's not what I originally expected I have a hard time figuring her out.

Dana - My boss. Which, when he showed up, I kid you not my first thought was, "OMG, my boss is wearing MOM JEANS!!" Up to his armpits, practically. He's always somewhat reminded me of my dad, but even my dad is a bit more stylish than that.

The training was an absolute repeat of a training I'd done two years before, but given that it gave me the excuse to come out to Chicago, I wasn't going to complain. A nice afternoon off and some time to think about one's priorities in life. I don't think it was nearly as effective as David Allen's "Getting Things Done", but as I said, a nice afternoon off.

The Senior Executive's house that we were at was an interesting place, in that it was sort of McMansion-ish (i.e. big but not overwhelmingly huge), but weirdly deserted. That was later explained when it was revealed that the Senior Executive was a single man, who had this giant house but his only "family" was serving as a chaperone on youth trips for young men from his church.

Which I guess was another thing that struck me about everyone, was how much they talked about their church and God in their lives....ah yes, welcome to the midwest.

So an after-work drink was out of the question, but my boss had already said that I should come to his family's house for dinner. So he picked me up from the Senior Exec's house (where, it should be noted the Senior Exec said barely two words to me, despite that it was going to be one of his only opportunities to meet me in person. Awesome). We then drove back to his place, where his three teenage girls struggled to make polite conversation (when did I become such a grown-up that I triggered mutism among teenagers?) and finally it was time to sit down to dinner. And we said grace first (of course). Despite the random silences from the girls, we struggled on through, I took a brief tour of the house (still somewhat McMansion-y, but I suppose typical for the suburban midwest), and then we went down to the basement for ice cream.

Someone explained to me earlier that most men, when seeking to finish out their finished basements, would install a bar as the piece de resistance, but my boss, being a Mormon, can't drink. So what to install instead? An ice cream bar! The whole set-up was amazing, with the flavours of the day and an incredible set-up of toppings. Good fun, although I'd be amazed if I didn't gain 40 lbs with that in my basement. Too tempting by half!

Soon enough, it was time to get me back to my hotel room, and so I gratefully accepted the lift back, thinking it must almost be bedtime. Imagine my surprise when I got to my room and checked the time...and found it was 7 PM. What on earth is up with these people? Still, after the early start, I wasn't about to object to an early bedtime and turned in.