Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

stranded

I’m supposed to be in Chicago right now, but the fates apparently had other plans.

Rob and I were all set to leave on an 8 p.m. flight from National to O’Hare for a weekend stay at the Hotel Holovaty until, around 5 p.m., Orbitz notified Rob that our flight had been cancelled due to bad weather. Rob scrambled to get us re-booked, instant messaging me that if I left work immediately, there was a chance we could make it on a 6:15 p.m. flight from National, which probably would be the last flight out to Chicago for the night. I scrambled to wrap up my work for the day and get out the door while he sat on hold to confirm our travel arrangements.

As much as I complain about local drivers, I think I bested all of them with my crazed driving through Rosslyn and across the Key Bridge to pick up Rob from Georgetown, the minutes ticking ticking ticking away as I waited at interminable intersections, waiting for an opening to turn (or at least stop blocking the lane).

In the end, we couldn’t get a space on that flight — not that it would have mattered anyway, as there was no way we were getting to National in time for the 30-minute cutoff. When Rob met me at the car, we briefly considered jetting to Dulles for a 6:54 flight, but abandoned the plan because there was no way we’d make it on time. (Plus, since our return flight would still be to National, retrieving my car would be a bit tricky.) We’d been advised to call the airline later in the evening to see about getting on a Friday-morning flight, but at the very least, we were confirmed for an early afternoon flight out of town on Friday.

We consoled ourselves and de-stressed with a dinner out at one of our favorite “comfort food” restaurants, Luna Grill and Diner in Shirlington.

We followed that up with a shopping excursion to the Pentagon City mall to walk off some of that big dinner. The new Sony Style store recently opened — right next door to the new Apple store (which, I hate to admit, actually pales in comparison). My big thrill at the Sony store actually was finding out that they sold Acme Made laptop bags, which I’ve only seen online and in advertisements. Some of their fabrics look much different — and, in some cases, much better — in person.

At Best Buy, we scouted out one of the cameras I’ve been waffling over, the Canon PowerShot S2 IS. After a few minutes of geeking out over both the macro lens and the uber-zoom — and the sharpness of the latter, thanks to the camera’s image stabilization feature — I think I’m sold. It’s a huge improvement over my current camera in everything but resolution, but it doesn’t feel like “too much camera,” which has been the main reason I’ve been shying away from the “prosumer” digital SLRs. If I decide I need a better camera later, I can upgrade, but for the time being, I think the S2 IS will do everything I need my camera to do, and more.

We’ve spent much of the rest of the evening chilling out at my apartment. Rob’s rigged his AirPort Express up to the stereo, and now we’re listening to the music from our laptops piped wirelessly to the stereo — and the sound is so good! (Among the songs on tonight’s playlist: selections from O by Damien Rice, which my friend Danielle recently sent me for my birthday. And a happy 26th birthday to her as well!)