Chris Moss Online

I was a bit bummed because I didn’t get to do much on the weekend. Friday I evidently ate something I shouldn’t have at lunch at became suddenly violently ill just as I was sitting down to dinner at 8pm. My assumption is it was food poisoning. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say the next 18 hours or so were not pleasant. The worst part was that Bobby & Ian had gone to a lot of trouble to have us over for brunch and I was really looking forward to that. I laid on the sofa all day, and the weather was miserable all day to compliment the way I felt.

James surprised me with an early Valentine’s Day. He got me a really, really sweet card that touched me and also got us the movie “Ray,” which I had been dying to see. We watched it that night, and it was quite good. I actually am ready to watch it again already.

He also introduced another animal into the house, but that is another story.

Finally got some sleep Sunday night and slept late despite needing to head to the airport by 2. Woke up to a GORGEOUS, 70 degree sunny day. Isn’t that always the way? Would have been perfect for geocaching but I was denied.

My trip to DC via Boston (for the miles) started pleasantly enough. I read half of John Grisham’s The Last Juror on the ride to Boston – it was great. As we climbed out of Boston to DC on our little RJA jet, they announced we were returning. As an experienced traveler, everything seemed normal and I smelled no smoke, so I could tell it was something minor – usually means some redundant backup has failed and they can’t proceed. They didn’t tell us what the problem was until we landed, which caused some degree of consternation among my fellow passengers. The cabin wasn’t pressurizing properly so we couldn’t climb to altitude and they didn’t have enough fuel to fly to DCA at 10,000 feet, so we went back. We were meant to continue on another aircraft. An hour later they told us the flight attendant had “timed out” so they cancelled our flight. The AA flights the next day were booked, so they put me on a 5:45a USAir flight. They put us up in the Embassy Suites (nice) but I got no real sleep despite lying down in the bed for 2 1/2 hours. Made it to DC and checked into the Ritz-Carlton with about 30 min to spare before my conference started.

Here’s some interesting insight into my nature – when I found out I was going to be stuck overnight in Boston, I became panicked that my client, with whom I was attending the conference, would somehow be unable to check in for the conference (as in, get his ID badge and course material and go into the room) if I weren’t there. My company made the arrangements both of us. Not likely, but at 2 am you worry about weird things. This probably is the primary cause of my inability to sleep that night. Of course, everything ended up just fine. But, you never know 😉

Weather in Boston and DC was miserable. Hated standing outside Logan waiting for the hotel shuttle. I was the only one smart enough to step inside and watch out the window. Mon morning in DC was dark gray, 33 with rain/sleet. Fortunately, I just took the subway from the airport to the hotel and really didn’t have to go outside. Tue was about 60 and very nice.

Conference ended at 12:30 and I rushed off for lunch with a business acquainantance there. I had to make a presentation in Houston last October regarding insurance policy archaeology (which is one of my areas of expertise) and a co-presenter at that conference was this coverage attorney from DC. He was a nice guy who I enjoyed chatting with in Houston, so I invited him to lunch to catch up. You never know where you might get a referral, so we make a point of visiting people we know if we are in another city, and he is the only one I know in DC, worth visiting anyway. Also, I think he is gay but neither of us brought it up. Anyway, we had a nice chat and a good burger in the middle of DC.

I really wanted to find a cache while I was there, and had brought “Jeremiah” – a bullfrog travel bug – with me but I had no time to drop him off anywhere. Made it to the airport a bit early and had smooth flights all the way back home via Boston. Finished my book, too and I highly recommend John Grisham if you’ve never read him.