Gloomy games, the lag and why I hate O'Hare

[seal]

I came back from the States 3 days ago and have been fighting a hellish &%¤#* jetlag since then. Thursday was weird, I was so tired I literally felt sick. I usually don't suffer this much from jetlags, but this time I might have overextended myself, flying from Sweden to Colorado, from Colorado to Illinois, from Illinois to Colorado and from Colorado to Sweden again, in 8 days. The pressure changes from all that jumping has been messing with my head if nothing else.

Still, it was a good family get together, people were happy, kids were cute and cousins that hadn't seen eachother in years made visual contact.

And then I lost my wallet at O'Hare airport, on my way back to Sweden. Or rather..I forgot it on the plane and went on without it on my merry way to my connected flight.
Let me just say that O'Hare is probably the LAST airport in the Western hemisphere that I'd want to lose anything valuable in. It is huge, messy and rude (completely lacking the charming aspects of its patron Chicago). My wallet contained not only a bunch of visa cards and other identity-theft goodies, but also my green card, joy joy! That'll teach me to never buy anything on a plane ever again! (as I did then, for the first frigging time in my life) About two hours before my connecting flight I discovered this disaster and started a frantic desperate hunt.
I'm going to spare you the story and just say that, in spite of having the full information of flight number, seat number, gate number, time of disembarking the aircraft etc etc, it took me ten moronic United employees to get to one great employee. Maybe those are the statistics when a company treats their people poorly.

I almost lost my shit when I came to a morose looking man with drooping shoulders, who in a lazy voice informed me that it was a doomed case, because the cleaning crew weren't with United (and often immigrants), and therefore they usually stole whatever they found.

"and how is this not United's business?" I asked with sarcasm masking tears welling up in my throat, he just shrugged.
I reminded myself that this wonder of diplomacy and empathy didn't deserve to get strangled because of my own forgetfulness, I had myself to blame, but I did feel sorry for all those United customers who ever landed in tricky situations, basically it's a Russian roulette when it comes to what kind of help you get from United employees.

I did finally claw my way up to a good guy, who looked and behaved human, and did what I'd asked all the others to do, namely to check the gate we'd landed at, and talk with the staff there. Phone calls were made, and after some running and waiting my wallet was found, unmolested! (so much for those thieving immigrants, you droopy shouldered assface).

I barely made it to my connecting flight, they were boarding the last handful when I came sprinting.

So, the next day, I was a bit of a basket case, but I made it to my seminar at least.

In academic news, I am taking Law for archivists, and also XML classes (which are kicking my butt a bit, but I have a good tutor), so there are some advanced classes mixed into the whole package, not all is lost in this new Master's program.

Yesterday, a handful of us played Gloom, a game very inspired by Edward Gorey, both artwise and storywise.



Each player monitors a freaky family with dark secrets, and the goal is to make all your family members as miserable as possible before they die.



If they die happy, you loose valuable points. In reverse, you of course try to throw happy incidents upon your fellow players, so that their family members perk up and die joyously.
I must say that I found this card game both quirky and fun.

And why am I up writing at 3 a.m. in the night in spite of a long day tomorrow?

aaah, my jeetlag, have I told yoouu of eet....

Comments

[blue-thundering.livejournal.com]

!!! You just introduced me to the perfect Christmas present for a friend -- thank you!

I'm really sorry to hear about your anxiety and property issues during the trip -- as if travel isn't an ordeal in and of itself. I hope you get plenty of time to right yourself, and feel better soon!

[dust-rat.livejournal.com]

Uouch! I hate to forget things on airplanes! Nowdays (after a ungodly amount of airtravel) I have a total paranoic behaviour, check everything five times, have special pocket fort that, and everything that is possible I have attached with strings or locked away ...

Good that everything ended in a good way at least!

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

Good to hear you, and your wallet, are safe. :-)

*hugs!*

[cienna.livejournal.com]

I went through a similar nightmare when I left my passport in the seat pocket on a plane. I realized I had done it right away and went back to look, but accidentally looked in the wrong seat. XD At that point I thought I must have left it somewhere in the city I had had the layover. As soon as I looked at the ticket I realized my mistake, but it was too late. The plane had already left and I got the same story as you about the cleaning people. I ended up having to have a new passport expedited since I didn't have a lot of time before I went back to Japan. And about three weeks later I got a phone call from Lish saying they had left a message on her answering machine about it in NY. WTH?

That Gloom game looks awesome! I'm going to have to try to find one.

[jinxle.livejournal.com]

Jetlag suuuuucks. I don't suffer so much going to NZ, but coming back to England is awful, I feel like some sort of hunover zombie head for days.

Feeling your wallet drama - I once left my handbag hanging on a trolley (the gate was down an escalator and another 10 min walk away).It had all my stuff in except my passport (my keys, my money, my creditcards). Sat at gate, realised although I had two bags with me I should have three, and went running looking for it. It wasn't on the trolley, security hadn't been alerted to any "unattended bags", and nobody had handed it in. I moped my way back to the gate, and a few minutes later one of those motorised carts with the flashing light drove up, with the guy on it very camply dangling my bag from his arm with a big grin. SO HAPPY.

Get feeling better soon

[lelain.livejournal.com]

Sorry you're feeling such horrible jetlag! Hope your body rights itself soon! I'm glad to hear that you found your wallet though - that sounds like an absolute nightmare.

[lizardek.livejournal.com]

SO glad you got your wallet (unmolested) back again!!

And that card game sounds pretty darn awesome.

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you made your trip there
and back again safely. I'm also
*really* glad you didn't lose your
green card -- or your identity!

As cynical as I am, even I am a-
mazed that it took TEN employees
before anyone would do so much as
call the gate for you. This might
warrant a letter to United, and
maybe you can get some sort of
complimentary reparation.

(I once missed a flight by an en-
tire day while on vacation!)

I agree that that game looks like
it will make a good xmas gift!

[lowhumcrush.livejournal.com]

fuck. i lost my wallet last month. i left it on the gas pump like a fool. when i went in a few hours later, the clerk laughed and said, "nobody's gonna turn in something like that, honey."

i FEEL your pain. and i am SO glad you had it returned! you had far more valuable stuff in your wallet and I can't even imagine what traveling would have been like without it.

and that game? YES PLEASE.

[olov.livejournal.com]

Good your wallet showed up again.
Have you heard about the guy who got so feed up with United that he wrote a song about them?

[aurora-ren.livejournal.com]

glad the game went well!! i have it on your xmas list =) dad told me about o'hare - sounds traumatic. call when you get the chance this weekend.

[simpletwice.livejournal.com]

Ouch, my body gets mad at me for daylight savings time, I can't imagine dealing with so many time changes in 8 days! Glad to hear you are starting to feel better.

[browniegirl322.livejournal.com]

OHARE IS THE WORST AT EVERYTHING, except sucking. They win at that.

XOXO