Today I'm just resting, though I hope to go buy different milk at the store later, because while not 'off', the milk I bought tastes weird, like they were feeding trash to the cows.
Yesterday I made another foray to downtown Chicago. I got a late start because my room got cleaned and I waited for that to happen before leaving. Then my credit card got declined at the train parking lot, then once downtown the google maps app told me to go in the opposite direction than it described when I was planning the night before, and the bus was delayed, and then the driver had no idea if the bus was going where the app said it would (to the Field Museum and Museum Campus), so I chickened out and got back off the bus. I knew I'd seen a bus that said 'Museum Campus' when I'd been at the Hop On Hop Off stop by Sears/Willis Tower, so I hiked all the way there. The display at that bus stop said the bus wouldn't come for a half hour so the app also listed a bus that was arriving in one minute. I took that, but it turned out I had to transfer to a different bus after a few stops. I didn't have the Ventra card and no clue about bus transfers, so I had to pay separately for each bus and they only took exact change. So, there I was frantically digging through my purse. I almost used my 1935 Silver Certificate dollar, but noticed what it was and stuck it back in my purse.
I was already all worn out with walking by the time I made it to the museum, but it was so late that I would only have an hour there anyway. The museum displays were very nice, but they go on and on like a maze, some of them were empty of people, I kept feeling worried that I would not find my way out. I tried following 'Exit' signs but they kept leading to stairs that were blocked off with 'no entrance' signs.
When I at long last emerged into the main hall, it had been taken over by what looked like a hundred or more ninjas. They were hurrying every which way carrying tables and crates. Some were arranging wine bottles on side tables. Apparently they were a catering service that wears all black outfits and were setting up for a museum hoopla that was going to occur after the official closing time. Somehow this activity had removed the ropes and ticket booths that had existed when I arrived, so I was disoriented and had no idea where to go.
I'd tried to be proactive and had discussed with the helpdesk when I arrived, exactly where to go to return to the train station. But since everything looked different I wound up going back the inefficient way, except I ran out of exact cash for the buses and then had to figure out at a 'L' train station how to get a Ventra card and get back to the Metra train. Again my credit card declined when trying to buy the Ventra card, but although the machine also wanted exact cash, the amount was larger so I had (just barely) the notes to satisfy it.
At the Metra station I felt much more comfortable and experienced, I knew where the ladies room was, I knew to read the train departure times from the top of the list instead of from the bottom (sooner is at the top, last time I was at the station I read from the bottom and was waiting at the track for my train a couple hours in the future, but was rescued from that by a conductor who showed me how to read the departure board and got me to the track that had the next departing train).
It occurred to me as I was feeding the last of my cash into the parking machine, that the hotel might have charged my credit card and maybe the amount triggered a fraud block on my card. When I got to the hotel I checked at the desk and sure enough they had tried to submit their charge and been declined. After the expected amount of time on hold to talk to the credit card company I managed to reassure them that even though my landline phone was disconnected and my address changed and charges were happening in a different city and different state, it was really me, and they took off the fraud lock.
I immediately went to the lobby and asked the hotel to try charging my card and they did and it worked, yay problem solved.
Then, I decided I better track the giant enormous certified check that the title company had sent to my daughter's address and she'd sent it priority mail with a tracking number to Fidelity (because I was worried it would go missing if sent to the hotel). Well, per the post office tracking site it had been delivered in the morning. But, although the tracking didn't show the address it was mailed to, it did list the zip code. The zip code was not the Fidelity zip code, it was the hotel zip code! One frantic call to daughter later, turned out she sent it to 'Fidelity' as the name but to the hotel address! If it hadn't had tracking the check would have gone missing! As it was I was not at all certain the hotel would give me mail that did not have my name or room number, but they did! On one hand I am very thankful but on the other hand what kind of hotel security is it that gives a mail item to a person who is not listed as the addressee/recipient.
So today, resting, just resting.
