i made it to florida

but it was about 6 hours later than it should have been. i left anchorage at almost 10pm last night. arrived chicago at 6am or so (3am ak time) and waited until my flight at 9:50am. the gate changed and i missed that info even though i was sitting at the gate the whole time except for a couple bathroom breaks. when i went to find out why we weren't loading on the plane they explained that the gate changed, that there had been an announcement (in a particularly shrill and condescending tone), and that it was now too late for me. exhausted and a bit furious, all i could do was go with it. after all i only had to wait. . . oh and mere 6 more hours, for a total of about 9 hours in the chicago airport!!! i was slightly delirious the whole time because i was so tired and had only gotten a couple hours of something resembling sleep on the plane. i did place myself in strategic corners and curl up on the floor to get some rest, but eventually people would end up sitting around me or coming close to walking on me, so that didn't really work too well for much more than about 20 min. at a time. it was a looooooooong day. then, of course, the car i reserved was no longer there for me because i didn't show up when i was supposed to. it took a little persuasion, but i was able to get the only thing left, an upgraded vehicle, for the economy price. my hotel is close to the airport and was easy to find, which ended up being the highlight of the day even though it is just your run of the mill airport hotel. expedia lied by the way. amenities included a pool and a fitness room they promised. no dice. instead, i'm on the freeway and get to be lulled to sleep by the traffic. . . except as you can see by the time of this posting, i'm not exactly getting lulled right now. the room is fine though and clean at relatively cheap at $65/night so i guess i can't ask for much. and it does have a fridge and microwave so i can save a little money by eating crap i can cook in the micro. denny's is about a block away so there i went for some food after nothing in my belly for 20 hours or so. i had a grilled cheese on sourdough with a salad. it was surprisingly delicious. i suppose anything is after that long. i read the 'welcome to jacksonville' book and learned a bit about this city and the surroundings while being pleasantly amused by the surprising back woods atmosphere it felt i had entered. i can't tell whether that was simply being in a denny's, which always sort of lends itself to the feeling to some degree, or whether it was a jacksonville thing. i shall see tomorrow when i get out and about more. i'm looking forward to exploring this place and seeing the landscape. i'm a little concerned that i won't be up for it though because for some damn reason i now cannot go to sleep. i've been exhausted all night and all day and alas i'm here in a nice big bed and i can't go to sleep. what is that about? for those of you who don't know, i'm here for a young breast cancer survivor conference. part education, part support. i guess i'm glad i'm here, but i'm still sort of hesitant about the whole thing. and i had that i'm thinking about money, but sheesh i'm spending a lot to be here. hopefully its worth it. the conference is friday through sunday so the next couple days will be mine to take some drives, see the beaches and go across all the cool bridges in this place. i have a thing for bridges. did you know jacksonville has more urban park land than any other city in the country? pretty cool i thought. they also have a few 'rails to trails' spots. its when old railroad tracks are turned into 'linear parks' as they called it. the weather isn't as warm as i had hoped it would be, but still looks like it will be nice at about 65-ish during the day. wish me sweet dreams. . . maybe it will help.