Waiting to Get There. Usually on the A/C/E in Chelsea, New York City.

Tom was walking down the street on the way to his breakfast place when he dropped his Airpod case. It landed closed, so he just picked it up.  (hmm, this sounds vaguely familiar .... :-) And only noticed after he had his plate of scrambled eggs that the Airpod case was empty. The case had obviously opened up midair, threw up the two earbuds and then closed again.  Hashtag oh shit. Tom raced back to the scene of the crash. He poked around on the sidewalk and discovered one (1) earbud.  These days, maybe unbeknownst to some, the Airpod Pro earbuds have little trackers in them so if you go on the iPhone and tag it as lost, you can see a map of where your earbud currently finds itself. Immediately Tom snaps into action. He cannot come with Felice and I to the Hopper exhibit at the Whitney because his earbud is headed down 6th Avenue. He sprints over there, and then runs into Academy Music because it seems his earbud went into that building. The guy at Academy Music said he hadn't seen

 We flew to Chicago last week because I had a work thing and Tom tagged along because... he's retired so why not. The first and most important thing to mention is that I did probably one of the best jobs ever packing for the trip. For once, I didn't arrive with seven pairs of pants and one shirt and like 5 socks. Every single day I had something seasonally appropriate to wear that mostly matched. Now, don't get me wrong, my preparations were extensive. I practically made flowcharts. The stakes were high because, due to this work thing, I needed to bring two (2) suits. WTF really.  The only good news is: because I existed pre-pandemic back in the olden days when people dressed up to go to client meetings, I have like 20 business jackets to choose from.  The not so good news is: I hadn't even looked at these jackets for three plus years. Unfortunately, I forgot my favorite dress-up work jacket was missing a button. I also forgot all about the all the other jackets stuffed