16 Days In My Favorite City

I'm starting to get excited. Next Thursday I take off for 16 glorious days in my favorite city…Chicago! True, the trip is for work so much of my day will be taken up with mundane tasks. But that's ok…I'll still have my nights.

I'll be staying downtown at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers which is right in the thick of things and a very nice hotel to boot. I'm a short walk from everything I could possibly need, want or desire there.

Lots of things make Chicago my favorite city. It's on a lake, it's got great food, and an Apple Store. Thankfully things will be starting to warm up a little bit during my trip. It's possible we could get some winter weather, but for the most part it will be fading.

I remember many many years ago, when I first started this job, I was working in Chicago. It had been a terribly long day and because I was the new guy I was tasked with managing all of the remote areas that were at hotel properties. This meant spending a lot of time in cabs running around the city troubleshooting. After a particularly difficult afternoon at the Hyatt on Wacker Drive, I stepped outside after hours of technical difficulties to take a much needed ciggie break. I was really hating my job at that moment and pretty much was on the verge of tears. I remember lifting my head and before me lay the Chicago downtown skyline with all of it's marvelous architecture and all of the crap I was feeling at that moment melted away.

My view that day. It's crooked cause I was giddy, Ok?

I was in another city, a beautiful city, and most importantly...I was there on someone else's dime AND getting paid for it! It made me giddy. I sat there in front of the Hyatt hotel and laughed my butt off. Since that day, no matter how hard my job becomes when I am traveling, I think back to that afternoon and while it no longer makes me giddy…it still makes me smile.