Archive for Social & Living

July 18, 2005 — Daily things… Jennifer Brower Goes To Washington … etc

What a day…. took 2 hrs get to work today!

Anyway, I have been away on my trip to Washington, DC. I took my little girl to DC for the weekend and it was fun. It is oppressively hot there, even more than in Chicago! But, I had no migraines so that was good. There were huge storms on the East Coast this weekend so traveling was horrible. But once we got there, it was fun. We’re planning to go back for cherry blossom time.

Friday July 15– Day at O’Hare

Arrived at the O’Hare parking lot at 9:25am for our 12:12 flight. Kinda early but thought going through the Homeland Insecurity checkpoints at O’Hare would be a pain. It wasn’t that bad really. Lots of advancements since I flew in October, 2001. Now, we don’t have to turn on and off our cell phones, cameras, etc. They can scan them. They also scan laptops separately.
Not 15 mins after picking up some lunch, I noticed that I had a few voicemails. I had set it up on American Airlines’ website to get flight status changes sent to my voicemail so I checked it. Our flight was CANCELLED sometime between checking our baggage and getting our food! So we raced over and were one of the lucky ones to get on a new flight… leaving at 4:12! (45 people were on standby!) It was 10:30. Hence, our long day begins… we read, we walked, we played with the laptop, we shopped, we ate…)

4:12 comes along. No plane. Flight delayed to 5:30. We board the plane at 6. Plane gets on the runway and the pilot tells us that there are two things wrong. First, there is a 30 min delay for all east coast flights. Second, there’s a mechanical problem with the plane. We ended up having to go back to the gate and stood around for an hour waiting for a new one. We FINALLY got on board and took off around 7:30 CST. We arrived in DC at 10:19 pm EST. We missed our 7:30 monument night tour and were really tired 🙁 You wouldn’t like gazebogirl when she’s tired and grouchy. My muscles ached in my shoulders and toes!

The lady at the Marriott Crystal Gateway was great though. They got us some room service (we were STARVING) before the kitchen closed & they held our reservation for us. Great hotel — highly recommended!
SLEEP……………………………………..

Saturday, July 16 — Day in DC

Thanks to the late arrival we slept until 10 and were unable to make it to the zoo 🙁 But, we still got to the Smithsonian and spent the day there. We saw everything! Vicki fed the pidgeons (those little guys are friendly!) . We saw Kermit the Frog, the ruby slippers, the Hope diamond (I was unimpressed), Fonzie’s jacket, Oscar the Grouch, and Mr Rogers’ sweater. We also saw the Berlin Wall — It amazes me that Vicki didn’t know what the Berlin Wall or Soviet Union were. The cafeteria was full!

We left the Smithsonian around 4 and not five steps away from the American History museum, it POURED! We managed to get to the Metro station a block away and saw the Reagan Trade Center. But, we were drenched. The laminated map we used as a cover was torn to shreds by the time we got there. My video camera got all wet but it did power on & was ok! So, we went back to the hotel and got ready to go to Union Station to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (I love Movietickets.com)

C&CF was pretty cool. It was more true to the book, except for the end. The message though was that family is most important and that evil little children will eventually get what they deserve. The best change though was the Oompa Loompas. The ones in the original movie had that creepy clown look while the new ones were more cool looking. Their songs were better too.

Went back to the hotel and worked on my Accounting homework. It was due at midnight on Sunday. Stayed up until 3am.

Sunday, July 17 — Crystal City & Going Home

Sunday morning, we got up and went to the Crystal City shops below our hotel. Unfortunately, they were closed! So, we decided to get some pizza and met some people at a PartyLite convention from Wisconsin. We checked out of the hotel, went to the airport, read, ate, slept, shopped until our 5:38 flight. Which became 5:50 which became 6:30.

We got in around 9:00 and could not find our car! How embarrassing! We got the car around 9:30 and were home by 10.

SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

July 13, 2005 — Traffic is WAR!!!

Ok I’m mad. This Chicago Rush Hour nonsense is really getting to me. Yesterday, it took almost 2 hours to get to work. I left at 7:20 and got there at 9 am. On Monday, I got back to the daycare at 6:15 & I left work at 4:45! (Daycare, btw, closes at 6!)

No, I don’t work in Wisconsin or Springfield… I work 35 miles from my house! And, I take 2 major expressways (here in IL we call them TOLLWAYS) I-88 and the illusive 294. The problem with 88 is the construction. Both East & West bound are torn up — and have been since last summer — near Winfield and Naperville Rd. Sometimes it takes 20 mins to go the 1 mile between these exits. 355 and the Oak Brook/York Road toll plazas are fun too. What I love is how after you go through the York Rd toll plaza, the left hand lane ceases to exist. This really freaks out the out of staters.

Speaking of out of staters, could I put in a request that you not drive on our roads during rush hour? Or at least drive in the right hand lane? That goes for the trucks too!

Semis are a major problem on 294, especially at the Touhy toll plaza. Guys, don’t drive in the left & middle lanes and then realize you need to get over because you don’t have an I-PASS! There should be a time period; ie 7-9 am and 4-6 pm when trucks and stupid new drivers are not allowed on the road. Semis also pose a problem by where 294 meets up with 290 & 88. Right after you get through the York Rd plaza, you get stuck on the onramp for 294. There’s got to be a better way!

Then there’s O’Hare. Every day I pass by O’Hare airport and every day I have some idiot taxi driver or limo driver trying to cut in front of me because he forgot that his exit is coming up! HELLO! You drive this route ALL the time! It’s one thing if mom who works at home is driving her minivan and realizes that she needs to get over because her exit is coming up but COME ON! If you drive the same route every day then use your brain and get over early!

And quit slamming on your brakes for no reason! Both tollways have the same problem… bumper to bumper traffic for no reason. Is it any wonder I need a brake job every 10K miles?

Tollways… the whole thing annoys me. Rod Blagovich said that the I-Pass was supposed to ease congestion…and then doubled the tolls on those without one. It costs me $1.70 per day to use the tollway with an I-PASS.

Welcome to Jen’s Ladybug Picnic

Welcome to my new blog! I decided to create this blog to talk about all the things in life that I enjoy and that are important to me. I’m sure I will be discussing the following items:

  • Family
  • IT & Project Management
  • Comedy
  • Golf
  • Healthy Diet/Living
  • Owls – I LOVE OWLS!
  • Parakeets/Cats/Pets
  • Technology
  • Travel

I may touch on politics and religion here… I may not. This is a happy blog. It depends how I feel that day 🙂