“For any of you who are driving in Chicago for the first time tonight, let me give you the rules of the road. There are three rules: Green means go, yellow means speed up and red means the first five cars go through. If you follow those simple rules you’ll fit right in and no one will know you’re from another state.”
This is how the driver of the Hertz courtesy shuttle greeted us on the way from the main terminal at O’Hare to the rental car lot. Why am I in Chicago? Shouldn’t I be back in Singapore? Well, I am not in fact in Chicago—that was last night and this morning, I am back in Chantilly now—and I was supposed to be in Singapore, but I got interrupted by events beyond my control… They canceled the conference I was supposed to be at two weeks ago and so I had to go to the one this week in Seattle. Yes, Seattle, I was there Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Then off to Chicago to meet with a customer and an vendor for a four hour meeting—which was remarkably like a three hour tour: the people in charge were totally lost and we were tossed about in a storm of questions.
Anyway! Now I am in Virginia and I should, changes in itinerary not withstanding, be back in Singapore on Monday, which I understand is a holiday. And I understand I now have a flat—as in a place to live not a flat tire, though I had one of those last week and it cost me over $100 for the replacement tire!—and will only need to spend a few days in a hotel. Yea! We’ll see how it goes.
P.S. the title is the chorus line from a Soul Coughing song…
