Chicago Again!

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I realized that it's been over ten years since I was in Chicago. I left under bad circumstances and at the time swore I'd never go back. I did leave a loophole in that promise to always be ready to return on business. I've had layovers in Chicago now the last two or three times I've traveled, but Thursday and Friday of this week, Chicago was my destination.

I attended one of those fun industry conferences complete with vendors, speakers, break away groups, you get the idea. The conference actually was very productive.  I learned a lot. Everyone was nice. It's good to be able to network and meet so many people in our industry looking to improve and change things that I never foresaw when I first got into insurance. I hope I can take what I learned with me in my future endeavors.

I didn't have time to do much of anything in town. We were away from the heart of the Chicago that everyone sees on television. We were in Lombard. I boarded the plane early Thursday morning, arrived at the airport, was shuttled to the hotel, and registered and started meetings immediately. Even if I had the time, there was no way I had the energy to do anything but go to my room and collapse onto a very comfortable bed and watch basketball. I was able to find time to check out the Target next door, always a popular Chicago destination...

Friday morning, meetings and breakfast began at 7:30 and ran through 1:30. After lunch, we were all shuttled back to the airport to try to find and earlier flight (wasn't any), and wait for our 4:12 flight back to Richmond. Once back into town, I crawled home to fall into my recliner not to move the rest of that evening. Even today I'm still feeling effects of losing one whole hour.

I know, I'm a wimp, but I had fun, and I know that Chicago will always represent how wonderful bad times can be. The bad times not only help me appreciate the good life that I have today, it reminds me that if not for those bad times, I would not be where I am today...enjoying every minute of the good times. You know what I mean. That's one thing in life we all share. Making good out of just about anything.

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