SquirrelFood.net Music Blog » 2005 » August

Chicago, Football, Cable Modems and 36 pages of emails

Author jamie on August 14th, 2005

Flying to Chicago Wednesday quickly went pear shaped as rainstorms delayed my flight by over 4 hours, threatening to leave me stuck at Midway until 6 in the morning, waiting for the car rental desks to reopen. Fortunately, I made it with just ten minutes to spare. Thursday was good- got a lot of work done, then met up with friends from Chicago for dinner and a show at the House of Blues. Glen Phillips was awesome (if only a short set), and Marc Broussard really got the crowd going. Bartenders at HOB blues are really nice.
My cameraphone actually took a good picture- but it’s from behind the stage, so enjoy Glen Phillips’ back as he sings:

The Barclay’s Premiership opened the season this weekend, and thanks to an unexpected lack of work, I was able to watch it from Ginger’s Ale House. Special thanks to Sheila for being so great to an out-of-towner!

Chelsea didn’t play until Sunday, and I had promised myself I’d make it to Fado or The Brewhouse to watch the match, but do to circumstances, I ended up getting play-by-play on my mobile. Apparently 90 minutes wasn’t enough time for the Blues to beat EPL newcomers Wigan Athletic, and they waited for injury time to score the only goal of the match. Three points is three points. Still, Chelsea is now in 6th place after goal difference. That should be the lowest position of the season.

The return trip from Chicago was blessed by an availability on an earlier flight, and an empty seat next to me on the flight. After that, everything went downhill fast. Having decided to take public transport to the airport on Wednesday, I had to take the train from the airport to Lindbergh, then a bus back to my street. The train was full of sweaty Falcons fans after a pre-season game at the Dome, and the A/C was off- and the bus kept breaking down on the way to Sandy Springs. I arrived at my apartment after 12 am, to find a notice that someone had been mugged at gunpoint at the entrance gate I had just walked by at midnight. Wonderful.

But, the bad news wasn’t to end there…oh no. Once inside, I went to check my email, and find that storms earlier in the day have killed my cable modem. Comcast’s solution: “You can bring it to your local office to swap it out, or we can schedule you a daytime appointment”. Sometimes, I hate myself for ever working for the Cable demons.

And finally- after missing my alarm- I’ve arrived back at work, and a working Internet connection to find over 1200 emails in my work account. The next three hours will be spent sorting this out.

Tomorrow will be a better day. Tomorrow brings us: