Da Burgh and Traveling Through O'Hare

I just want to start by dispelling rumors that I have abandoned the blog. I have merely been taking a creative sabbatical to deal with basketball players jumping into inflatable pools, even if they are recovering from a torn ACL, as well as attending a wedding and a bachelor party.

The wedding was in Sharon, PA and included such amusing activities as going to karaoke night at the local Quaker Steak and Lube. I know this is going to sound incredibly snobby, but if you were ever going to go looking for your truck drivin', gun toatin', possum eatin', GOP votin' folk they'd be hanging out there. The place is decorated for the NASCAR lover, and although I know more than you would think about NASCAR because I do like car racing of all kinds, I think decorating your restaurant with car hoods and other car paraphernalia just takes things down a notch. That said, karaoke was pretty amusing.

The other quality event of the wedding, besides the event itself, was my dearest wife and her brother doing push-ups while we were all getting ready to leave (I will provide pictures of this soon). Let's just say it was pretty damn funny. I also got to drive Nat's aunts truck which was lots of fun. It is always amusing driving something that is twice as big as my Civic.

As for the bachelor trip to DC the most amusing part was flying through O'Hare. I know this goes without saying for you middle of the country folk, but that airport stinks if your goal is to arrive anywhere on time. My flight Friday morning was delayed at the runway in Nashville for 1 hour, followed by a 1 hour delay in the air, refueling stop at the tarmac in Indianapolis and further 1 hour delay. Luckily Nat told me by phone that American Airlines had canceled my morning flight to Reagan National but had rebooked me for a later flight without doing a thing. That little change made it possible for me to land at O'Hare 3 hours late and run to a gate, with enough time to grab a Kit Kat for lunch, and get to DC only 3 and half hours late.

In DC there was some semi-controlled debauchery and a trip to the Washington Nationals new ballpark. The park itself is pretty nice and has some nice views of the city, but overall it is just ok. The concession stands are well stocked with good food items, even though they are pricey as expected, but the park lacks that characteristic that makes it stand out from the rest of the parks and from the city itself. The HD and gigormous scoreboard is awesome but you don't get to enjoy its full capacity that much as replays are not shown nearly enough. All in all, the park on the outside fits into the city almost as yet another office building and inside it lacks that something that makes it unique.

On the way back I actually left National, which is an absolutely joy to fly into because you get the most amazing viewof the city, on time but I was delayed out of O'Hare on the way home. Not only that, the flight was overbooked by 5 people and the next flight was not until the next day. Now, the airplane only holds about 50 people, so that means that American overbooked the flight by 10%! That meant that those 5 people did not get home on time, even if they got a hotel stay and $250 voucher for their troubles, simply because the airline screwed up. Just not a good scenario.

I will end by saying that I was incredibly disappointed with the customer service provided by the American flight attendants. I am aware that their job is stressful, especially when flights are delayed, and especially when your job is on the line because of job losses in the industry left and right. However, none of these make it ok to be rude to costumers that have a request, especially when the request is being made in a courteous manner. At the end of the day, it is their job to make the costumer have a pleasant experience when they are using the airline. Being nasty at costumers is going to do nothing but drive them to other airlines, which will translate on more job problems for them.