Chicago Shenanigans:

• A guy named Mario mistakenly took my luggage thinking it was his. I would like to thank you Mario for not noticing the incredibly big bright green name tag and for not noticing you had taken my luggage for a good 20 hours. I like to hope that you got curious and unzipped one of the pockets and got a face full of tampons. Hope that made you uncomfortable because I had to make an announcement to a bunch of army guys that I had to make an emergency run to the nearest grocery store because of that much-needed pocket. As much as I want to be mad at you Mario, I am so incredibly grateful that you were honest and brought my luggage back to the airport. I did have to sleep in my clothes and attend a day full of meetings in the same clothes, but at least I got my stuff back. When I was at my lowest, assuming I would never see my luggage again, I made a comprehensive list of my luggage's contents and its estimated cost. Mario, you could have had over $1600 worth of my stuff. I would have been heartbroken over my earrings from Peru. I would have cancelled my trip to Hawaii.
• One of the sessions we had to attend was titled: R U Angry? In the middle of our tables, we found pamphlets, and we were encouraged to go through the list and check off things that make us angry. Bad Drivers? Check. Misbehaving Children? Check. Loud Noises? Check. As I was thoughtfully making my way down the list, one of Ben's buddies whispered my name in awe. I looked up at him, he looked at me wide-eyed, then pointed to his list. I slowly looked at my list, then looked at his list. Then I glanced at everyone else's list at our round table. I had about 15 items checked. Everyone else had an average of 4 checked. He laughed, then everyone else laughed. Ben had a lot checked too. R U Angry? Apparently, yes I am.
• I had to get special permission to leave the session early Sunday morning so I could catch my flight to Hawaii later Sunday afternoon. Ben and Lt. Smith drove me to the airport, they dropped me off, and I checked in and made my way to my gate smoothly. I stopped to buy myself a parfait, went to pay, and mumbled a small swear word. Ben had my driver's license and credit card in his wallet. The night before we were going into the city, and I didn't want to take a purse, so Ben offered to take my ID and credit card in his wallet. I brilliantly forgot to get it out of his wallet. I called Ben, but they were already back at the hotel. I talked my way through my predicament, but calmed myself into realizing that I should be fine because I had my passport for ID, and a backup credit card that I wasn't jazzed to use, but would work fine. Idiot.
• We flew into SLC earlier than planned, so my dad agreed to pick me up at the airport so I could hang out at my parents' for a few hours. Unfortunately, on the drive home, I brought up a picture text message I received from Andrea documenting a hike I missed. I was completely in the dark as to who was in the picture. I can't give any more details, it's little Em's story. It was not funny in the moment feeling like I was the one getting in trouble as my dad furiously described his take on the whole thing, but now it's really fun to laugh about when my parents aren't around.