Happy Ulysses-Completion Day!

Ah, the day when children across the nation commemorate the anniversary of the completion of James Joyce’s Ulysses!

Okay, maybe not, but today does mark the time when — according to popular legend, anyway — Joyce wrote the last lines of his masterwork. In fact, Ezra Pound’s post-Christian calendar uses this date in 1921 as its origin point. I find the use of multiple calendars a fascinating exercise in increasing our awareness of the inherent arbitrariness of dating systems. Alas, I can never keep the dates straight, so my contemplation only goes so far.

Well, we made back to D.C., no thanks to monstrous security delays at Midway and the rampant ego trip of an ATA gate attendant, who made it her personal crusade not only to delay us as much as possible while boarding, but — for no apparent reason — to start refusing people to board with carry-on bags she deemed too large. Of course, the bags in question were officially small enough to be brought on — and in many cases belonged to passengers who had already had them on for the first leg of their trip — but no, she had decided to play bitch. Even the flight attendants on board were baffled: There was plenty of room in the overhead compartments. But none of them were allowed to go up the ramp to tell little miss gatekeeper. My carry-on made it past her critical eye, but Ginny’s did not. Which means that after the several-hour wait at Midway (we’d arrived seriously early, which allowed us to actually sit down for a late lunch at Harry Caray’s, but left us exhausted by boarding time), she still had to wait at baggage claim.

And, of course, the whole trip ended with mixed results. The good news is that it went really well. Alas, that’s the bad news as well: The clients were so happy with the results that now they want us to go on shoots in Nashville and Atlanta — next week. And unfortunately, I’ve used up my child-care credits (or, more specifically, Pam has) across the past two weeks. I can do Nashville on Tuesday and Wednesday, but not Atlanta on Thursday and Friday. Adam’s in the same boat, but he can’t do either leg. Which sticks Ginny with doing the whole trip, and I still need to find someone to help out in Atlanta.

As they say, be careful what you wish for.