There and back again... in 39 hours.

[Written at 4:48 CST/5:48 EST]

The past couple days have marked my first experience in the world of business travel. The company I worked for thought it would be good for my general knowledge of the company to go on a tour of the facility where we complete most of the production of one of our primary products. A facility which is located just outside of Dayton, Ohio. And since the tour is the only reason myself and a few other of my co-workers were going, we would go one day and come right back home the next. Wednesday to Thursday. No problem. Ugh…

Wednesday morning I woke myself up way before the ass-crack of dawn – 4:45AM. Since I had stayed up to watch the election results and Obama’s subsequent acceptance speech, I didn’t actually head off to bed until about 4 hours previous. Needless to say, I was a little droopy-eyed. Met up with the right people, got on the plane, spent about an hour in NYC, and the headed off to Ohio, where we quickly checked in and I quickly crawled in bed to take a nap. My room was pretty great – decent sized bathroom, couch, desk, TV with cable. And a king-sized bed. All to myself. I loved it. If I had the money – and, you know, the space – I would buy one. Pure heaven. I could have shared it and never even known. I spread myself out and didn’t kick the wall, I turned over and was able to look at the pure vastness next to me – I would say that I slept like a baby except that my little cousin used to get her feet stuck in the slats of the crib and wake up everyone up screaming. Let’s just I slept quite well, thank you. Almost as good were the paintings in the room. Great whimsical landscapes of rolling hills that seemed nostalgic of the times when Ohio used to have geographically diverse terrain – you know, before the great tectonic shift.

After the nap, it was time for dinner. We went to a very good chain Italian restaurant called Bravo’s where I had the most delicious pesto tortelloni I’d ever eaten and listened to some repeated melody playing over the loud speaker that was part Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” part theme song from Super Mario Brothers and part Wes Electronica DJ on acid. Bizarre. After dinner and some pretty great tiramisu, it was back to the King (as I was now calling my bed) and a pretty terrific night’s sleep.

Morning. Breakfast. Starbucks. Presentation and tour. Awesome machines. The complete geek in me that is in love with robotic technology had about half a dozen joygasms during the 45 minute tour. Pure brilliance. Beneath the silent squee’s were also musings about how the building would work as a BDSM dungeon. I mean, come on. The machine that spins so that plastic wrap can wrap itself around whatever’s on the metal circle on the floor? The place where our coupons are kept – called “the cage” – where only one person is mandated to manage? How could it not?

Airport. Lunch. Plane ride to Chicago. Pretty uneventful, all things told, except when I got in I learned that my flight back to Boston was delayed by more than an hour, and that just sucks. The airport itself, on the other hand, is amazing. Passing from Concourse C to B, I had to go through this hallway where they had those walking ramps where you walk at your normal speed but actually are going about 10 miles an hour faster, and so it feels weird to get off because you feel like you should still be being propelled forward. Adding to the psychedelic ambiance were walls with soft pastel lights shining behind the frosted glass blocks, and neon string lights on the ceiling being lit up in wave pattern going back and forth and forth and back. Music played on overhead that it reminded me of the last time I was in a planetarium, or some slow information ride at Disney World’s Land of Tomorrow. And so now I sit in Chicago, waiting for my delayed flight to finally start boarding, listening to the balding guy in his tweed suit across the way from me talk and the phone and am surprised to find out how much he sounds like Russell Brand, and eating the most delicious caramel apple I’ve ever had in my life. Caramel base, dipped in confectioner’s sugar and rolled in brown sugar and cinnamon. My mouth hasn’t been this happy to have something in it in way too long. And so, with any luck, I’ll be in Boston before 10PM. With more luck, I’ll be home before 11PM. If not, I may be going to work pretty late tomorrow.