It’s been two whole months since I posted something on this blog. I’d like to say that I used that time to stimulate my creative mind….but mostly I just watched the old game show channel and drank Mountain Dew Baja Blast.
For my first visit back to blogville, I will tell you about my trip to the WBSU Hall Of Fame back in April. This is going to sound self-aggrandizing…which I guess it is, slightly. I’ll try not to lean on that aspect of my discussion.
I am a graduate of SUNY Brockport (SUNY being State University of New York). Brockport is where I learned everything they is to know about ‘de radio business. Most of that education was behind the mic at our student radio station, WBSU, now known as 89.1 The Point. Every two years they welcome a new inductee into the WBSU Hall Of Fame. This year my name came up. I think they were down to the janitor and me. So I went back to the place of so very many pleasant memories and received my plaque.
Here’s how it happened (video credit to Pat Adriance),,,
In my remarks I said I was giving a short presentation because I had used all of my best jokes at a similar alumni event last year. And that’s partially true. I didn’t want to give a Ted Baxter speech. (“It all started in a 1,200 watt radio station…”). But another reason the speech was short is because I arrived at the campus trying to shake off the effects of PTTD. Which stands for Post Traumatic Travel Disorder.
It started when my flight out of Denver was delayed. Delayed to the point that I missed my connecting flight to Chicago. I got rebooked and arrived at O’Hare late at night. Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaate. O’Hare is one of America’s largest airports. Larger than Denver. But I know Denver Airport like I know all the names of the Brady kids. At O’Hare I was, pardon the pun, flying blind. This brings me to the discussion on Uber. There is GOOD UBER and EVIL UBER.
GOOD UBER: Wenty stands in front of a hotel. Car pulls up. Wenty goes somewhere. This is the most common experience.
EVIL UBER: If there are more than 5 people trying to find their Uber driver, this is officially, sanctioned, notary-republiced EVIL UBER. Evil Uber is most commonly found at airports. Usually you have to stumble and fumble around endless corridors, escalators, elevators, trains, plains, automobiles and parking garages where you feel a 73% possibility of being beaten, raped, panhandled or god knows what all. I spent the better part of a dark evening trying to find a way to the Uber area. I found the Uber area and saw 4,512 vehicles circling, circling, circling. I just about collapsed in a combination of frustration and exhaustion. At that point two strangers asked me if I needed a ride.
Not Uber “ride from stranger”. Just two guys who had a hotel shuttle bus and were making extra scratch on the side. Well, it was after Midnight and a hotel was gonna be part of this nigthmare so sure! Drive me to a hotel, two random dudes! (Yes, there were two guys in the front seat. One of them was driving and the other guy was….the driver’s friend? Eight of the longest miles in history and I bid my driver and his friend adieu. I went up to my room and planned to get some badly needed sleep.
CUE THE WEATHER!
Have I told you how much I hate weather? Particularly how much I hate severe weather? I hate hearing about it, I hate seeing it, I hate the fact that I have to talk about it for my job. And on this night, I hated it because just before I was gonna go to bed, I got a text saying that the Chicago to Rochester was cancelled. I started flipping through the channels and it was a tornadogasm. Chicago is the windy city. Bad planning on my part there, I guess.
They rebooked me. The rebooked flight was cancelled. (There may have been a third rebooking. It became a blur at some point.) My friend Pat Adriance was going to meet me at the Hall of Fame event the next day and it was beginning to look like I wouldn’t make it. So I sent Pat a sad, defeated voicemail. And then I went to bed.
When I woke up the next morning they rebooked me …3rd time (4th?) is the charm! That damn plane hiked its ass off the grounf and got me to Rochester. And I had a wonderful evening at the Hall Of Fame ceremony. And I had a wonderful two days in New York City. And I wonderfully went home and declared that I was done with travel for a long while.
Oh….I forgot that I had already paid for an Atlanta trip in May. That one went perfectly. But this one, like last year’s Koz Roast, was very, very special.
