Wednesday morning, I got up bright and early in my crappy hotel to try and catch the first flight out of Toronto. After being chased around by a massive roach/beetle, I packed my stuff back up and headed to the airport.

At the check-in, I was told that there was an earlier flight (though not the early one I wanted, which was full), which the guy on the phone I talked to the day before didn't tell me about. I took it, since it got me into Chicago earlier, actually coinciding with the time that my other coworker would be getting into O'Hare. I knew that I had to go straight to Milwaukee once getting to the airport, but I was hoping to see Ben before heading out there. However, by taking the earlier flight I could just ride along with my coworkers to Milwaukee and get there earlier. I was supposed to be in Milwaukee at 7am, but with the whole weather debacle and my flight being cancelled, the earliest I would get to Milwaukee was 11:30am.

Then I had to go through U.S. customs again, answering the same questions about my reasons for coming to Canada. This time the border agent gave me a hard time about my passport - it still has my maiden name. I explained that my driver's license has both names, and he then told me that anyone could get a driver's license, that it really wasn't an official document. Flashes of being thrown into an underground dungeon once again flashed before my eyes. Fortunately, he stopped being a tool and let me through.

I know I say this all the time, but I love flying into Chicago. My heart just dances on the plane, seeing my hometown from above, knowing that I'm home. It was especially nice this time around since we were flying from the north. Usually I'm coming from the east or the west, where I'd see all the little homes of the city. Coming in from the north I got to see the nice big homes and the lakes and golf courses of the affluent northern suburbs. The flight in was a little bittersweet, though, because I knew that even though I was flying into my hometown, I wouldn't actually be going home.

We landed and I hooked up with my coworker and we got my bag (which had actually come on the early flight which I was stand-by on and had to be freed from a cage.) Our project manager then picked us up and we headed out to Milwaukee.

It's always a difficult situation when you're coming onto a client site late. Luckily, we've been working with this client for a while and they were understanding.

This was the first time that our whole team was together onsite. Later that night several of us just hung out in the hotel talking about the project. It was nice to hang out together and talk face to face, rather than on IM or e-mail.

I finally got home yesterday...and I missed my little baby boy so much. I hugged him and squeezed him until he couldn't take it anymore. I had thought that now that he's older, now that he's walking and everything, that trips away would get easier, but in some ways, it's worse. I miss his personality and crazy little antics. Fortunately, I'll be home most of next week, so I'll get to hang out with him every day.

It's good to be home!

Posted by Yano at May 18, 2007 11:28 AM

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