The Aerie

Not Lost

I was at the O'Hare airport when I noticed a very weird thing. It was a set of outdated brochures for my own company, in a display on a counter in one of the stores. Since they were outdated I thought I'd better collect them up, all the while wondering how they had managed to remain on display all this time. And also that they had, as far as I knew, generated absolutely no business.

Well I carried them back to the seat where I had left my computer bag, and discovered my bag was missing.

This was a disaster. Both my heavy, bulky work laptop AND my personal lightweight Vaio laptop were in that bag! My mind started racing: what was on those laptops that I hadn't backed up? How was I going to explain losing my work laptop to my boss? How was I going to explain losing my personal laptop to my spouse?

I wandered around O'Hare airport with my outdated brochures in my arms, trying to fathom some means by which to locate my computer bag, or some person to help me find it. Finally I wandered down a wing of the airport that was under construction, feeling very lonely and anxious...

...and then I woke up.

ZOMG! I have NEVER been so relieved to wake up from a dream, even if it was to discover that my fever had not yet broken.

Yes, it was literally a fever dream which I had on Saturday morning, as I woke up with my throat full of yellow-hot broken glass and my sinuses trying to expand into my brainpan.

From the point of view of timing, it was either perfect or completely wrong - I got sick very quickly on Friday afternoon, and Monday morning here I am back at work. In the middle was a weekend that felt like being fast-agitated in a hot-water washing machine

Along the way I was bound and determined to get some work done for work - which I did finally on Sunday evening. So basically when I wasn't hallucinating under the covers or staring glass-eyed at the TV machine, I was down in my office trying to manage the security for a multi-billion-dollar retail enterprise.

Sounds about right.

What else is new? Well, my spouse bought new window shades to replace the dessicated vinyl Target blinds that needed replacing - and then our her cat bit right through the drawstrings on two sets of them.

I haven't blogged because I've been THAT busy, BTW. Days and days on end where I'm booked from waking til sleeping, stressing over my job and people demanding results and the banshee sound of deadlines dopplering past. Gosh, I wonder why I've gotten sick?

But I'm actually HAPPY that I'm sick right now. Why? Because that means I likely WON'T be sick two weeks from now, when my writing group heads of for a retreat a the cabin of an acquaintance of mine! Yep, our writing group alum from San Francisco is flying in, and we're all heading to the woods of northern Wisconsin for two nights of intense writing exercises and moderate drinking.

Well, I've got work waiting for me, so I'd better get back to it. Just remember to keep your luggage near you in O'Hare...

Posted by Albatross at February 18, 2008 10:30 AM | TrackBack