Worst. Business Trip. Ever.

This post is coming to you from O'Hare International Airport, where I'm waiting for my rescheduled flight home. I hate air travel, but it's a good thing I didn't drive...

It started out well. When I got to the airport, they were calling my name and I was like "oh, this isn't good", but they wanted to re-book me on a direct flight to Detroit, so they could cancel the flight to O'Hare due to weather. I got to leave a couple hours later, and got into Detroit an hour early, so I had time to check into my hotel before group dinner.

Monday morning I woke up with an irritated left eye...I figured I had something in it, so I washed it out with solution and tried to ignore it, but by noon it had gotten worse and started to ooze pus (EW!), so I figured I should see a doctor. The conference organizers were awesome. They found me an urgent care facility, drove me over, sat with me, and took me to get the prescription afterwards. The doctor was a cross between Dr. Brown and Hawkeye, which was as weird as it sounds, but I liked him. He didn't think it was pinkeye, just an infection, so prescribed a steroid/antibiotic combo. And NO CONTACTS.

I have the distinction of having the worst prescription in my doctor's office. One eye is around -12.8 and the other is around -13.1. I CAN'T SEE WITHOUT MY CONTACTS. I tried taking one lens out of my glasses and go with one contact, one glasses lens, but that was a spectacular failure. I'm almost sure that my brain would be able to process the difference eventually, but it was giving me a headache figuring it out. By that time, I had missed the campus tour and they were going to start dinner at the Big House, but I was exhausted and still leaking snot from my eye, so I stayed in my hotel room with a warm compress and slept. Very disappointing!

Today, I've been trying to make my way through major international airports with the eyesight of a mole. My first flight was delayed two hours. They promised me I'd make my connection, and I pleaded visual impairment to get them to send a cart for me so I didn't have to find my gate by myself. It didn't matter, because we landed about the same time my flight home took off, so I've got a three-hour layover in Chicago. I finished my knitting project in Detroit except for weaving in the ends - I left my darning needle in my suitcase, along with my backup project. Doh!

So I'm killing time with my laptop and my phone mobile hotspot. I'll get home sometime after midnight, and poor Joe will most likely have to go into work tomorrow morning after picking me up in the middle of the night. I've got a little more understanding boss, and I'll go in later tomorrow. I think I'm going to have to work abbreviated days anyway, as I'm not sure how long I can work at a computer in my glasses. This is sucking pretty badly as it is.

I'll take some of my time off and block the hats I've been working on, and you guys can have some pretty knitting to look at instead of my whining all the time.