Sunday, I left home about 7 and drove to Anderson to meet up with 4 other consultants and leave my car. Since none of us had husbands who were able to get us to Indy for the bus to Chicago, we rented a limo. It cost us each $10! Phil is still laughing about us pulling up to a BUS STOP in a limo! It worked out well. Due to very little traffic at that hour on Sunday morning, we arrived 45 minutes early and sat in the limo for a little while longer. We raised a lot of eyebrows, and comments from other directors about driving in style...only to get on the bus! They were just jealous!
We arrived in Chicago around 2:30 Indiana/NY time. We got a taxi from Union Station to the Sheraton Hotel where the others were staying. I had reservations at the Chicago Hilton. I hung around with them for a while, hoping to head off to lunch, only to find we were being delayed a bit longer. I decided to head via taxi to my hotel and get checked in. Mary Beth and Char (with Jeremy their charming driver) were to arrive by about 2:30. I checked in, but a room was not ready. They had guaranteed room by 3 pm, so I headed down the way to find some lunch before my blood sugar dropped more. I was heading to some 11th St Cafe recommended by the Concierge, but instead found a subway and a Dunkin Donuts (gotta get a strawberry/banana smoothie since I can't get them around here!) Then, after eating, I headed back to the hotel and was able to get a room. I unpacked and decided to put my swollen ankle up and read until the others showed up. Char was the first to show up, then we went downstairs together to meet Mary Beth and help her with the luggage.
I realized mid afternoon that I had left my printed ticket for our boat cruise (scheduled for that night) at home in a folder with a lot of important conference information. This was a big problem. I called the company to find out what I could do in order to still go on the cruise. They couldn't look up the info easily as it was a web order. I decided to try plan b and c and d and e.
Plan A: Call home and ask the babysitter to help me find the email on my computer so she could look up the confirmation numbers. Problem: Babysitter (extremely sought after babysitter) is computer illiterate. That did not make it easy, nor did the fact that when you are not looking at the computer screen, it is hard to remember exactly where the quick-links are.
Plan B: Get Lilly on the phone and sit her down at my computer to see if she knows enough about my computer to figure it out. That lasted all of about 5 minutes before I asked her to give the phone back to Rebecca. Rebecca apologized and said that she wished her brother were there because he could figure it out. They were getting ready to head out the door for church with the girls, so they didn't have time to get him.
Plan C: Call the neighbors (who were going to be watching the girls the rest of the week) and have one of them come down and help figure it out. Bummer...they weren't home.
Now, to plan D: I called Phil in a panic. He saved the day. He left work and came home to give me the information I needed so they would allow me on the cruise.
After that was taken care of, the 3 of us decided we should head out and get some supper. We were thinking of Mexican, so had to find one that was open on Sunday night. We called Jeremy (the wisdom of Chicago!) to find out where we should go. He had just said, "Would you really like to know? long pause..." and Mary Beth replied that she did. He then lost signal! It was quite funny. We decided maybe he didn't want to share his secrets after all. 20 minutes later, he called back and we got another good laugh out of it.
We ended up eating at Chipolte (a branch of McDonalds), which was actually really good. I think I had shaved pork on soft tacos and it was good. About the time we arrived at the restaurant, Mary Beth realized she has forgotten her ticket (after all I went through, it was quite funny). So we ate supper, and she left to go back to the hotel and get it. In the meantime, she ran into someone she needed to give some stuff to and wanted to do a couple of things (behind our backs to surprise us), and then she headed out. This time she took a taxi so she wouldn't be late. As the taxi was getting much closer, she realized she had taken all her $ out of her purse, and had nothing. She called Char and Char came to the rescue, paying for the taxi (much to the driver's relief...he was not HAPPY with the situation). After getting out of that crunch, Mary Beth realized that she had left her ticket in the room (AGAIN!). Char by this point was laughing quite hard, but Mary Beth was frustrated and upset (not yet seeing the humor). She wasn't sure what to do until a nice gentleman asked if she needed to buy a ticket. She said,” No, and yes" and explained her situation. He had 2 extra tickets and all she had to do was go onto the boat with his group and she would be free. That's what she did.
Now I must stop and add a note here so you'll get the humor even better...Mary Beth regularly (each year) teaches a seminar at National Conference...on what else but Time Management and Organization! The whole entire 3 days we were together, we couldn't quit laughing about it. We even made such a laughing racket at our Executive Banquet, (after Velvet mentioned Mary Beth for a source for Time Management and Organization) that we had to share the story with everyone else there. We couldn't stop laughing!
Our boat cruise was amazing.
It was so beautiful. We had a really relaxing night on the lake (once we got there! We also learned a lot about the architecture of the city. Here are a few other shots from the sunset cruise.
The new Trump building being built in Chicago (right by where we boarded the Wendella Boat)
Navy Pier just after the lights turned on.
Hancock Tower
Isn't this just beautiful?
Last but not least, my traveling buddies - Char Lucero and Mary Beth Knowles. Conference was great. The new products (as always) are quite amazing. There are 60 new products...including Stainless Steel Cookware! None of us quite knew how to respond to this. We knew something new was happening with the cookware, but we thought it might be a new piece of the Executive Cookware. Guess we were wrong. Pampered Chef always does their research and found there is a big markets “share" in stainless as there is in non-stick. They want to offer us a large market share by having both sets. There area a lot of other great products too. The announcements were fantastic and exciting.
Oh, Yeah! I can't forget the trip to the American Girl Store and Build A Bear. I had special requests from each of the girls!
This is the hair salon at the American Girl Store. This is where girls take their American Girl Dolls to have their hair styled. There is also a Cafe where you can have lunch together with your doll, an IMAX theater, and a doll hospital. My friend Char took this picture to show her family because she didn't think they would believe her!I arrived back home around 9:30 Wednesday night. It's nice to be home, but there is lots of work (both around the house, and with my business) that needs to be done. Phil worked all week too, so we had sitters taking care of the kids.
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