A Synchronicity on the Venus Flytrap

Venus Flytrap

On that same fine Spring morning, Wednesday, April 9th 2014, the speaker at the business breakfast I attended mentioned the Venus Flytrap.  It is an unusual plant for being carnivorous, and is therefore the stuff of horror flicks.  Then there it was on the CTA bus.

The Machine Inside: Biomechanics

The tagline above the Venus Flytrap says: Built to make snap judgments about what to eat for dinner.  It was a promotional for an exhibit at the Field Museum.

A Synchronicity on my Malaise

On a cool and bright Spring morning, Wednesday, April 9th 2014, I walked to, and from, Union Station and the Ritz-Carlton for a business breakfast.  About three weeks since my trip to the Middle East, and I was feeling out of sorts, exhausted, a protracted malaise.  That was the word that often drifted in my mind, and there it was in graffiti.  The trip was very productive, very hectic, and I did quite a lot in the weeks leading up to it.  It takes me only a couple of days to recover from an overseas trip, but this one slowed me down for a few weeks.

McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum

That dilapidated entrance was at the end of the Michigan Avenue bridge over the Chicago River, looking west to the waters below.

Airport Walks as a Form of Meditation

It was a sleepy overnight flight from Kuwait, and a bright morning greeted us in Frankfurt.  I took care of Thursday's exercise walk, as I wrote about in the preceding article, and today March 21st 2014 I took care of Friday's exercise walk.  I didn't have as much time, and I managed to get that hour in, and once again take a handful of snaps, before having to board my flight to Chicago.

I love airports, and walking about is truly a form of meditation.  

Frankfurt Airport is large, so there was no feeling cramped with the distance I wanted to walk.  I love the curious sights, commercial and natural, like how the sun poured from the left and on the Lufthansa logo, making it more golden and bathing the space in a modest warm glow.  I love the myriad of shapes that are the airplane and its boarding corridors, as there is geometry after all in our world.  I love the model airplanes, taking flight in suspension, at the center of a conical glass overlook.

Kuwait is The Land of Friendship

Somehow I had turned the proverbial leaf.  Usually I push the envelop so much with my timing that I am sprinting through the airport, it seems.  Since I began traveling for this Kuwaiti client, I've arrived at the airport in such plenty of time that, in keeping with my Algorithm for Exercise, I walk for an hour.  I loaded my carry-on luggage onto a trolley, and took a moderately leisurely walk.  This airport is not at all big, so I had to go up-and-down the same three corridors several times.  It was a fine way to decompress from the unpleasantry at the JW Marriott, just a one or so before.  

Along one corridor, I noticed these large promotional photos for Kuwait, and snapped them with my trusty new Samsung Galaxy Note II.  My JW Marriott unpleasantry notwithstanding, I very much agree that Kuwait is The Land of Friendship.

The JW Marriott Unpleasantry

JW Marriott, Kuwait

It was a beautiful hotel, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant stay at this hotel.  There were concrete barriers leading up to this driveway, where security guards checked incoming vehicles.  It was cause for a good amount of congestion at certain times.  

I checked in on Monday night, March 17th 2014, after a long journey from Chicago via Frankfurt.  Off the bat, I had to secure a deposit for my stay.  Which I didn't expect in the least, as my client took care of the arrangements and expenses.  I had no credit card, but reluctantly handed over my debit card.  I had just written a large check, before leaving Chicago, so the effective cash on our account was tight.  I didn't expect the deposit amount to get approved, but it was.  That large check hadn't cleared, yet.  The hotel clerk promised me it wouldn't be a charge, but I was not happy when I checked my account online, once in my room, and the amount was already on it.  It wasn't a hold, but a charge is what I explained to the clerk.

I checked with my client on my first day onsite, and he followed up.  Except that the hold-charge remained on my account.  I prayed that that large check wouldn't be presented so quickly, because otherwise it would bounce.

Four nights later, Thursday night, as I was checking out, that same clerk, perhaps by fate, took care of it.  He asked me if he ought to go ahead and bill my debit card.  What?  Even though my client confirmed that they would cover the expenses, the clerk said there was no record of such.  I blew up.  I had my client on the phone, and he spoke to the clerk directly.  The resolution at first was not at all satisfying, even as the supervisor arrived and said that it would take a few days to clear the hold-charge on my account.  I was fuming.  My wife and I had already had major problems with our account, being put on hold and checks bouncing, with separate issues, and this was the last thing I needed.  I was careful to make sure hotel expenses were covered, as I managed our account and cash flow tightly.  

I railed mostly at the clerk, and said that what he did impacted my family and me, and, more calmly, told the supervisor that their behavior impact the hotel relationship with their national oil company.

Thankfully, by the time I arrived home, on Friday afternoon, I saw that the hold-charge was cleared and lo and behold the large check hit my account.

All's well that ends well, I suppose.

The Curious Ceiling of Al Hamra Mall

I had had a very hectic, productive, albeit short visit in Kuwait, and now it was Thursday evening, March 20th 2014.  My friends Fadel and Mohammed took me out for dinner earlier in the week, and it was my turn to reciprocate.  Just minutes from the JW Marriott where I was staying, the Al Hamra Mall was pleasantly quiet and sparse.  It was busier at 10 PM, but at 8 PM when we arrived to have dinner, it was a perfect antidote to my week.  I captured the curious ceiling, high above, from where I sat.  I looked up, as if I were looking up to the heavens and meditating to God.

Looking-Down, Sitting-Up Travel Selfies

By Richard Leung

By Gary Rea

I admit to being hunched over, when I work my Samsung Galaxy Note II.  But I avoid that when I am walking about.  I want to make sure I am as mindful of my surroundings as possible, so I often use my walks, and I do walk a lot, as a form of reflection and relaxation.  The first two selfies are on the Metra train in Chicago, and the second two are on that short Frankfurt walk and on my return to the airport.  So while I may look down, I am sitting up.

Sparse and Monochrome near Frankfurt Airport

Monday afternoon, March 17th 2014, and Frankfurt, near its airport, is curiously sparse of people on a business day.  I also found it curious that much of its surface mirror the dull day.  Thank goodness for the Deutsche Post DHL and its bold yellow and red and its touch of green.

Bicycle Racks Designed as Bicycles

I was curious about these bicycle racks, designed as bicycles in and of themselves.  There is no mistaking what they are for.  But by their very cleverness, I suppose we can think creatively about them, too.  Perhaps as a homage to the fundamentals of physics and geometry and to the ingenuity of humankind.  Perhaps as a make-believe ride for a boy or girl, instead of a horse or a car.  I loved how the parallel lines converged where but somewhere in infinity.

Forces that Create the Balance

A half mile from Frankfurt airport was this art installation.  A curious stacking of what, it doesn't matter.  I noticed first the uneven stacking of these cans, or tapes, or spools.  Then I noticed the colors, against the gray, more as it climbs up.  I'd expect that unevenness to make the installation topple, but I trusted at the same time that it wouldn't.  There are structural forces, no doubt creative as well, that secure it, and create the balance that an obsessive-compulsive would otherwise have difficulty creating.