The Midwest Adventure Continues…. with a slight change

Vloggercue was awesome! I’ll be putting up video from the event, and from my train trip up to Chicago. I finished 2 books on the train, and am now challenged to read either the weighty tome my sister gave me, or the libros en espanol that I brought along with me. Since my current Spanish vocabulary is barely above being able to say “el bano es a la derecha,” I’m thinking the big tome might be my fix.

I ran into a slight connectivity snag on this trip. At the last minute, I brought both of my laptops with me, figuring to do both work and play on the trip. I mainly edit my videos on the Mac, primarily, but wanted the Windows box for Camtasia, in preparation for Wednesday’s vlogging workshops.

So, I tossed the Windows box into the carry-on at the last minute.

But forgot the charger, sitting on my desk.

Whoops! I get to the Best Western Kirkwood, which has WiFi in every room, only to find that my Mac won’t play nice with their WiFi (this happens to me even at home sometimes). The Windows box works fine, so I use that to connect to the Internet. Except, of course… the battery has 3 and a half hours left.

Fortunately, the Best Western is next door to about a gazillion chain stores. So, I go to Radio Shack and buy an iGo charger system (everything has to be a system these days), but of course I get the one that doesn’t have the right connector plug, and which, I discover in the last 10 minutes of my waning battery time, won’t properly and safely charge my Windows laptop.

[Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah.] I wasn’t able to exchange the charger until 11 AM this morning, which was coincidentally almost exactly the time I needed to leave to make it to the brunch, which was well-attended by a few friends from the Internet. And immediately after that, it was onto the train to head up here to Chicago. I could plug in and recharge the batteries on the train, but alas, could only detect one wireless network, almost certainly someone else on the train named “DaGecko.”

I was on the train when Andy called. Andy’s an old friend from high school, who was helping me set up the open-invite dinner. He called to tell me that, contrary to previous opinion, Carmen’s in Evanston is not open on Monday nights (boo!).

So, the pizza plans have changed!

We will now be meeting at Giordano’s Pizza in Evanston, at 500 Davis Street, at about 6 PM. Please come!

In other news: Vloggercue was awesome, and my sister came out and visited, picked up her copy of the book, and participated enthusiastically in talking about video and classrooms and such. It’s always nice to see family, especially when you haven’t seen them in a few years.

In fact, tonight I’m at my brother’s house, with all 4 of his kids. They’re good kids, though. I’m amazed at a real, honest to goodness example of the phrase “controlled chaos.”

PS: I was on the train so long, I just caught myself swaying with the movement of the train…. which I’m no longer even on! Time to go to bed, I think.