Text 8754, 58 rader
Skriven 2011-03-24 09:10:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: cotd 122
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Lilli had a flight next day, but mine wasn't until the day
after that; so I let her use my room as a day room, so she
could store her bag while we went off on yet another great
adventure, which owing to the lateness of the hour (laziness
is nice sometimes, and almost excusable given our having
traveled 15000 air miles together in about two weeks) and
the crankiness of all the shuttle drivers and the even slower
than normal behavior of the Blue Line was restricted to
the Art Institute. It's all right, I really like the Art
Institute and could spend all day there. It has changed
quite a bit since I was last there, which was I believe
when the Dodger first got his appointment at Northwestern,
so that was a long time ago (after a good career there he
moved to U of C, where he's been for a decade). So I had a
hard time finding things for an efficient tour of the place.

Saw the sights as best we could in half a day (a special
pilgrimage to Nighthawks, of which we saw a 3-D homage in
Rome earlier this year and side trips to American Gothic,
La Grande Jatte, and Van Gogh's self portrait complete with
ear). I was more interested in Impressionists, but she is
sort of tired of them, so we compromised and spent an
inordinate time in Modern.

We didn't want to cut it too close, so we got on the L
before rush hour: back to the hotel, pick up her bag,
back to the airport. Interestingly, the shuttle drivers
got more cheerful as the day went on.

I used my super secret connections to pass security without
a boarding pass and joined Lilli at the club for the free
drinks. The bartender, who talked more like a college student
than a club drone, said that his fiancee, who works for American
Eagle, had noted that the Admiral's Club (Lilli's native club)
had started serving free booze as well, so we decided to check
it out. That story was indeed true, but the wine was worse than
the Red Carpet stuff.

After seeing Lilli off at the gate, I toddled back to the hotel,
where I promptly collapsed, waking up many hours later in a state
of modest disarray. Back to the club to spend a few coupons
before they expired forever - United was changing systems to
conform with Continental's with whom it is merging. Originally,
one got a number of booze coupons, and for one you got a glass
of rotgut wine or Budweiser or bottom-shelf liquor; for two you
got decent wine or decent beer or decent liquor. Then they
started offering a curtailed selection of cheap stuff for free
and accepting two coupons for the good stuff. As of November 1,
the coupons were to be invalidated, with cheap stuff still free
but good stuff cash only. This trip was the second half of
October, and I had 35 or so coupons to get rid of. Complicating
things was that the cheap wine that can be had free at some of
the airport lounges (San Fran = Hess Select; Chicago = Concannon)
is better than the premium brands being poured.

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