The Trip: Day One

Part 1

The alarm went off around nine in the morning, the sun well on its way past

the horizon, and I'm usually drinking water heavily from my desk around this time on Wednesdays. Searching for new articles to support my proposal or beginning the editing of our sites; my ear buds blocking out the "good mornings!" and "cute skirt" comments that usually litter the cubes around me. Today, continue to pack my junk and head to the airport. After a one o'clock White Sox win my head still lingered horizontally as I moved toward the kitchen and to waffles.

The drive to the airport and flight thereafter were relatively uneventful,

going from DFW Airport to Memphis, from Memphis to O'Hare was unusual. The Memphis airport lacked the kind of charm I'm used to in airports. Red brick walls supplied the sole décor and an easily forgettable backdrop as luggage wielding travelers shuffled past those with carts and baby carriages. I kept searching the brick for a painting or advertisement to no avail as the wash of CNN snippets of last night's game and the overhead chatter from the flight crew going to Cleveland, Detroit and Charlotte.