London

Well, I blogged about it in January, and the time has arrived. We're off to London Friday evening.

This trip, another gift from my employer, hasn't come without its own drama, however. There are a few employees who are not invited to London, who have not been in the fold for the required, and as yet undisclosed, amount of time necessary to be included in such company joy. It has made for some awkward, uncomfortable moments around the office over the past seven months: who's going and who isn't? (we weren't informed). Watch what you're saying in case one who isn't going can hear us. And then there's the departing flight shuffle, but that's just looking a gift horse in the mouth.

More drama has come in the form of a move. That's right, our company has outgrown its current digs in one northwest suburb of Chicago, and the decision was made this year to move into a bigger, more customized building with room for continued growth...

...at the same time...

...as the London trip.

For the past three weeks various fellow employees have been shredding unneeded documents, filing needed ones, boxing up tapes and CDs and DVDs, dismantling video production suites...and I've been on the road for most of that time. The company is being moved from under me! The task is not yet complete as we will be heading out the day after this blog is posted, but it will continue in our absence...

...while we're enjoying London...

...by those who are not invited on the trip.

And I'm embarrassed and ashamed at how it all has been conducted. I mean, they were never told they weren't going and why; they were just excluded from the invitations. It seemed very underhanded by a guy who doesn't seem to operate that way in his other relationships and business dealings. It was just handled poorly.

But I'm still going.

I just hope The Big Boss does something nice for the uninvited later down the road, to show his appreciation for their fortitude -- and for their not walking through the building(s) with a sub-machine gun blazing -- in the aftermath of the trip announcement.

And even more drama... Mrs. Farrago and I decided to take her nephew, A, on the trip with us. I'm paying his airfare with my frequent flyer miles...a LOT of them. As soon as The Big Boss OKed us bringing the kid, his parents initiated the passport application procedure. That was in April. There was a glitch, as these things always seem to go, and, due to his age at the time of application, they were instructed not to have him sign it. When the processing center got the application, they kicked it back, with notes indicating the boy's signature is indeed required. Let's not forget that it took the passport office 5 weeks to get that information to A's parents, which set the whole process back into a hopeless time frame, what with the current overburden the passport system is under this year. After weeks of dead-ends and "Call back tomorrows," and rude clerks telling my bro-in-law that his boy will "just have to reschedule" his trip, we are now in that 48-hour period in which they can go directly to the Passport Office in downtown Chicago and have his passport expidited...and that's where they are as I write...a mere 25 hours before departure time.

That aside, I intend to journal/blog throughout the trip as I did in Paris. Of course, I intend to write every day, but knowing how tired I get at the end of an 18-hour day of walking, snapping photos and eating, don't hold your breath!

I'm hoping to visit a good friend who lives in Birmingham, as well as a possible meet-up with none other than the inimitable Blogger star, Ultra Toast Mosha God, who lives in Bristol.

I'll be perusing Blogger daily, at least, so if you feel I'm slacking, be sure to let me know in my commenst section, and maybe I'll get off my arse and write.