Thinking Positive

I know it is a little too much to get two blogs in one day but it has been that kind of day. I did get to Chicago and everything went smoothly...for about an hour. I got to our booth, and there was an air compressor in a cardboard box--dimensions 48" x 24" x 24" (very important!) and NO CRATE, the key ingredient to our successful tradeshowing. On one side of the cardboard box is a photocopied Airways airbill that says that it is our booth shipment. The scary thing is that there is a label on another side that says that this box was supposed to go to someone in Rosalia. I am panicking thinking that our crate is in Rosalia while this box got to take the scenic route through Chicago. I try to get a hold of Lowry & Hogan, our freight guys but of course it is Sunday and no one answers. I go to the show freight guy and he says he can remove the freight that is not ours but he can't tell me when our freight is. I talk to Airways and they say that the crate is probably just in someone else's booth. I would have individually inspected every booth except that during set up there are crates everywhere and you can't even get down most aisles. Airways also says that because our booth is 72" x 24" x 35" they couldn't possibly have gotten it mixed up with the other box--that they track by dimension. I am afraid I don't believe this even for a second but I hang up with him anyway. In desperation I go to GES (the show extortionists) and order a carpet and a table so we will look like we mean business. This costs me over $700. Then I start thinking about all my options.

I really want to go to church. The meetings start at 1:00pm and by this time it is just a little after 11:30. I think I can get to my hotel and change and get there. But, I am also thinking of how to find my crate. After not much sleep last night I really don't have much energy for a fight. I finally decide for sure that I will just wait for Bryan to get here and maybe between us we will have enough energy to hold some peoples feet to the fire (have I used the right expression?)

I go to wait for the shuttle bus to my hotel, all the time thinking about the $10,000 we have spent to do this show right and my heart falls right to my shoes. I want to cry but I'm too tired. Then I think about the $5,000 we have spent to go to next weeks show and I am wondering if we will find the crate by then. Many shuttle buses pass by, none of them mine, and I am growing more discouraged by the minute. Well, you know the sign at the top of the bus front that says where it is going, most of the buses said the usual thing--"EXPRESS", "SHUTTLE", etc.--suddenly a bus turns the corner and its sign read "THINK POSITIVE". I had to kind of laugh out loud and I truly tried to do as it said.

I had a great time at church even though I forgot my coat, it cost me $20 to get there in a taxi and I stepped in a slush puddle up to my ankle as I exited the taxi. I really felt like I was in the right place. It was no easier getting back to the hotel. I decided to do it on the cheap ($2.25) and took a train and a bus, all the walking distances done in slush and in a wet, slushy snowstorm. But, now I am thinking positive!

Greetings from a Road Warrior

Today the more appropriate title for this is blaaaaag. It is 5:20 am Denver time when it was supposed to be 6:20 Chicago time for me. It would be a very helpful visual for me to include a picture but fortunately for you I don’t have a camera—just picture red bleary eyes, bushy hair and yesterday’s clothes with a few new spots.

For anyone who has known me for more than 15 minutes, it is plain that the plan is critical. Disruptions to the plan cause real difficulties. Yesterday the plan was to catch a plane in Spokane going to Denver and then in Denver catch a plane to Chicago. Once in Spokane, I learned that all flights into Chicago were cancelled. I figured I would be better off in Denver (at least half way on my journey) so I called my 24-hour travel agent (Cecily!) and had her book me a hotel in Denver (I learned that that is what she is called from someone on the shuttle this morning who was explaining how HE had gotten his hotel room.) Well, the craziness that ensued from the disruption of the plan caused me to lose the bag given to me by David containing a maple bar and packets of instant oatmeal that were supposed to get me through the week. As he pointed out, at least it wasn’t my laptop, but I was still very sad about the loss.

Speaking of road warriors, perhaps I really know the meaning of the word as I look around me. We have just been informed by the gate agent that we will get to Chicago, but anyone connecting out of there has very little chance of making it. Thank goodness I’m getting off in Chicago. Has the invention of air travel really improved the quality of our lives?

How are you in retail speak

I haven't been traveling lately so no big opportunities to blog. However, I can't pass this one up.

I was at Office Depot last week to buy some tax forms that I had to have. I found some that I needed but could not find all of them. I went the check out counter and laid out my purchases. The kind lady at the register asked me if I had found everything. I answered her truthfully, that no, I had not found everything. I waited for her answer as she continued to ring my up. She asked me for my money, I paid and left. I guess she had been trained to ask me about my success but to her it was just like asking "how are you?" as a greeting.

I just had a chance to read Julia's blog about Grandpa Campbell. This being his birthday I have been thinking a lot about him, mainly about the last time I saw him alive.

It was a kind of crazy circumstance that took me to the Logan house twice on consecutive weekends. The first weekend Dad and I were there for a CSI shareholders' meeting. We arrived on a Thursday so that Dad could do officer reviews. I had contacted Lisette Miles to see if we could meet up and she told me "Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" was being presented at her theater. We asked Grandma if she would like to go and she said she did so we got tickets. That night it was looking doubtful that Grandpa and Grandma would go with us but the next thing I knew, here came Grandpa dressed in his suit. I don't know what kind of effort it had required to dress up in this way. He really enjoyed the performance and it was a wonderful evening. While Dad was at CSI Grandpa and I thoroughly discussed a lesson from whichever prophet we were studying that year (whichever one it was, it was the story of him testifying from the pulpit about the Prophet Joseph Smith and reaching his inactive brother.) I read it to Grandpa two times. Whenever I was with him, Grandpa instructed me and a lot of those instructions have stayed with me.

The following weekend I was there with David. Grandpa and Grandma met him and Grandpa told me he was a good man. My memory of that morning was of Grandpa helping Grandma put hot pads on Grandma's knees to help her out. He set the timer so they would stay on the right amount of time. He put on his coat and went out but I heard him shoveling and I went out to relieve him which he let me do. I left with David about noon and didn't return until about midnight. I was worried the minute I opened the door that they had waited up for me because all the lights were on but then I became conscious of Uncle Paul and Uncle Evan and Grandpa crying out in pain.

The next day we expected Grandpa to pass away and as I held his hand, his breathing was very irregular. I wondered if it would just stop all together. But, at one point he opened his eyes and asked me how the sealing had been the previous day (the reason for our trip was the sealing of David's adopted niece to her parents.) Grandpa was alway like that, paying most attention to spiritual things. I am so grateful for my heritage.