Chicago Trip

This is an email I sent regarding a trip to Chicago I took a couple of years ago. It bears repeating...

I just want you all to know that I don't seek out experiences just so I can write entertaining emails. I also want you to know that I don't think mental illness is funny. Sometimes though you just need to find the humor in a situation so you don't cry or start suffering some sort of mental illness yourself.

I went to Chicago with a colleague yesterday, we shall call him Jack. I've been working rather closely with Jack over the last couple of weeks because he needs to learn a product on which I was recently trained so he can train that product. He seemed a little quirky, but fairly sane. I should have known to be concerned when I ran into him in the airport before we flew to Chicago and he mentioned something about his Licensed Clinical Social Worker. To me LCSW= Mental Health Provider. The flight to Chicago was uneventful. When we arrived he seems very focussed on buying some water and then he told me he needed to transfer some money to his sister's bank account. After he got his water and an airport hot dog (probably not the best meal choice) I gave him suggestions as to how he might go about transferring funds and he proceeded to go through that process right there in the airport on his cell phone. Needless to say, by the time we made it down to the baggage claim our luggage was on its way to wherever they take unwanted luggage. We claimed our stuff and grabbed a taxi. Jack continued trying to do that funds transfer while Mohammed the taxi driver seemed to be trying to get us killed.

We arrived at our destination and I got checked in. Jack's check in process took quite a bit longer than mine, but I didn't think too much about it. I finally told him I was going to my room and I'd meet him right by the check in counter at a certain time. The certain time came and went and Jack wasn't where we were supposed to meet. I finally found him wandering in another area of the hotel with his airport hotdog and his bottle of water. It may have been at this point that he mentioned I needed to make sure he took his pill before he went to bed, that I should call him in the morning to make sure he was awake and could I also remind him to buy tickets to the Bjork concert in Las Vegas . I did have to admit I wasn't much of a Bjork fan. I thought to myself that I wasn't his keeper and that I was pretty sure this wasn't part of my job description.

I had a coupon for a free appetizer at the hotel restaurant and told him we might as well use that since we were going to be walking kind of far to do some shopping. We were seated in the restaurant and there were people at 3 other tables nearby. Jack started on his airport hotdog and then asked me if I knew the guy at the next table over. I glanced over and said I didn't know him. Jack said he did and then went over and introduced himself to the guy who happened to be a former Chicago Bulls player. I've been with other people who have done similar things so I still wasn't thinking anything too out of the ordinary had happened. Then Jack proceeded to introduce himself to the people at the remaining two tables. I did think that was odd, but then again I thought maybe Jack was just a friendly guy. We made it through our appetizer and discussed some job openings in our department. He mentioned some people that he thought should apply for the jobs, including his girlfriend and I think he asked me if he should tell those people that they could have the jobs. Honestly, I thought he was kidding and said that of course they'd have to apply and everything. He seemed to think that made sense. We finished up and headed out to do a little shopping.

Along the route to our shopping destination we stopped at a couple of stores and Jack bought a few things including a couple of snow globes. We found my all time favorite popcorn store and I bought a bag of caramel and cheese popcorn (so good!) and gave Jack most of the bag. We then went to the huge Macy's that used to be Marshall Fields. Jack had to use the restroom and I had to do some shopping so I told him to meet me in a certain area when he was done. I did my shopping and hung out in our designated meeting spot. I waited and waited and then realized I'd lost Jack in Macy's. If you haven't been there, just know this store is huge. I finally found him waiting by a fountain and asked him what he was doing there. A store worker told him that was where people met. Like I said, this store is huge-- I figured he just couldn't remember where he left me. I wanted to look at some shoes, so we went to the shoe department. Along the way we saw all of these huge FAO Schwarz stuffed animals. They had a life size moose for $1200. Jack mentioned that he'd bought his girlfriend a life size stuffed ostrich at the FAO Schwarz in Las Vegas . I said maybe he should buy her a moose to go with the ostrich. He seemed to think it was a good idea, but wasn't sure how he'd get it back to Utah . Again, I thought he was kidding and told him it might be better to get it online. I looked at shoes and then we headed back downstairs. Along the way we saw a big stuffed dragon and I said maybe Jack should get that instead of the moose because dragons are cooler. I guess he texted his girlfriend to tell her that he was going to buy her a big dragon, but she said she'd rather he didn't because she was scared of dragons. I'm still thinking he's kidding and now his girlfriend is in on the joke. Ha ha.

We made it back to the hotel after Jack took a brief detour to chat with a guy trying to sell some sort of newspaper, decided upon a time to meet for breakfast and then I went to my room. I took a leisurely bath with a nice smelling fizzy bath bomb. I was very happy that it was still early so I could relax and get to bed at a decent time. I was in my nightgown watching Kitchen Nightmares when the hotel phone rang. It was Jack's mom. What a surprise since I don't know Jack's mom and I'm pretty sure she doesn't know me. She asked me how Jack was doing and then asked me to keep an eye him and not let him spend too much money. I'm thinking to myself that it's a bit late for that since we'd already gone shopping. I said that Jack seemed to be fine and she asked me to make sure he took his pill. Right. Now I'm starting to wonder what this pill is and what it might be for. I told her I'd do what I could and got back to watching TV. The phone rang again a few minutes later. Jack's mom called back, this time because Jack couldn't find his pills and she asked if I could go help him find them. Mentally I'm going through my job descpription and I know for sure this is a bit above and beyond. I tell her I'll go see if I can find them. I get dressed and head off to Jack's room. He was on the phone with his girlfriend and I got to look through all of his belongings to see if I could find the lost pills. There were no pills anywhere in that room. I suggested to Jack that he see if the pharmacy where he got his pills could transfer the prescription some way to a pharmacy in Chicago . I told him to call the hotel front desk to get the name of a nearby 24 hour pharmacy and I said if the pharmacy couldn't transfer the prescription he'd have to call the doctor on call for his doctor at home and have that dr. call in the prescription. Jack relayed this information to his girlfriend and told her to tell the pharmacy to transfer his prescription and also to send him a car charger for his cell phone. When he got off the phone I explained that I didn't think the pharmacy could send him a car charger and that we didn't actually have access to a car. I also told him again what to do if the pharmacy couldn't just transfer the prescription. Jack seemed to know what needed to be done, so I went back to my hotel room. Kitchen Nightmares was over by then, but I was still optimistic that I might get an adequate amount of sleep until my phone rang the 3rd time. Yeah, it was Jack's mom again calling to let me know that Jack called the hotel manager and asked him to take Jack to the hospital. The hotel manager decided to call an ambulance instead. I didn't recall hospital or ambulance being listed as available options when I last spoke with Jack. I finally asked Jack's mom what exactly was wrong with him. She replied that he's bipolar and that he really needs his medication. Off I went, back to Jack's room where I met the hotel manager and two very nice paramedics. I explained that he really just needed his medication. His mom had given me the name of the medication and the dosage. Jack was talking to the doctor on call for his doctor who said he'd call in a prescription. We got the number and address of a 24 hour pharmacy and I got to walk with Jack to the pharmacy several blocks away. By this time it's after 10 pm and I just know there's no way I'm going to get any sleep. Along the way the dr. calls and says he called in the presription to Walgreens, however the pharmacy we were heading to was Osco. The doctor says to just have the pharmacy call him when we get there. I must mention here that Jack acts as though there's nothing out of the ordinary about having his mom call me several times and doesn't seem phased by the idea of us making a late night trek to the pharmacy in downtown Chicago . He does mention that he forgot to bring his water. I assure him that we can probably get him more water at the grocery store. We get to the pharmacy, give the pharmacist the doctor's phone number, get some water and then sit around and wait. The grocery store with the Osco pharmacy is a pretty happening place to be late on a week night in Chicago . I check my blood pressure a couple of times since there's not much else to do and discover that my blood pressure is at an all time high. Hmmm... Finally, the pharmacist calls Jack over to ask him a couple of questions and then steps away leaving Jack standing by the counter. The pharmacy phone rings and Jack asks me if he should answer it. I tell him that he doesn't need to. I realize that Rainman was autistic-- not bipolar, but I'm kind of feeling like I'm traveling with the Rainman. Jack prescription is filled by now and we get to make the chilly trek back to the hotel. Right before we left I watched him take his pill like the good little colleague keeper that I am. On our route back to the hotel Jack asks me if tomorrow we can go back the way we went tonight so he can buy a paper from the guy he saw earlier. I told him I didn't think we were going to make it back that way. Now originally I was going to have Jack do a little ice breaker for our training class. I'd decided right in the midst of everything that was going on that it might not be a good idea to let him do anything in front of the client. Jack mentioned that when he got back to his room he was going to buy his Bjork tickets online, buy the dragon for his girlfriend and he was going to finish up the ice breaker for our training. I suggested that maybe he better not buy the dragon after all and didn't worry too much about the icebreaker. I get back to my room and start trying to wind down wishing I'd bought some sort of sleeping medication while I was at the pharmacy. Just as I start to relax the phone rings. It's Jack letting me that he finished the ice breaker. I told him that maybe we shouldn't do that ice breaker after all until his boss approved it. Then I reminded him what time we were meeting for breakfast.

The next morning (which came much too quickly), I called Jack to make sure he was up and then I got myself ready. I packed up, grabbed my luggage and headed off to the restaurant wondering if Jack was going to be normal and apologetic about everything he put me through. Nope, he wasn't really back to normal. He somehow got lost trying to find the restaurant and ended up going through the kitchen to get to where I was. He arrived without his luggage although the plan was to take our luggage to the client site. He asked me how he should get to Las Vegas for his concert and he asked me if his boss had approved the ice breaker. I'm not sure how I was supposed to have gotten that approved between 11:30 pm and 7:30 am. I told him to just not worry about it and that he could just sit back and observe the training. We made it through breakfast and then I sent him back to get his luggage. I called my boss and asked if she'd known Jack was bipolar before she sent him on a trip with me. I explained some of what had happened and apparently he'd told his boss that he had some problems over the weekend, but that he was fine. What can we learn from this? If a mentally ill person says they're okay you may want a second opinion. Anyway, my boss felt bad and apologized for putting me through this.

Jack finally made it back downstairs with his luggage. We caught a cab and when we arrived at the client site he asked if we were going to leave the luggage in the cab. **sigh** The training was fine. I did allow Jack to introduce himself and he did say a couple of odd things, but hopefully the client just figured it was because he was young or new to the company or from Utah . After the training we caught a cab to the airport and Jack was a little upset that he'd left his water behind. I assured him he could get more water at the airport.

Upon arriving at the airport I discovered there was an earlier flight to Salt Lake City . I got myself booked right on that flight and helped Jack get booked on the same flight. The ticket agent kept trying to get us seats by each other and I kept trying to politely decline until we ended up with seats across the aisle from each other. I would have loved to have left Jack behind, but I felt responsible for him. I did go through the shorter security line and told him I'd see him on the other side. Somehow I lost him again. I waited around and didn't see him, so I went to the gate and he wasn't there. Since I just happened to be at the gate, I asked if I'd been upgraded to First Class hoping I was being blessed for all I'd gone through, but the lady just said she'd put me in a seat closer to the front. I figured if it wasn't by Jack I'd feel like it was First Class. I finally had to go back and look in each gate area for him. I found him in another gate area. I asked him what he was doing there and he thought he was where he was supposed to be. You see why why I felt like I was traveling with Rainman? We made it on the plane where I discovered Jack was sitting right behind me. I put in my earplugs, read my magazine and wished I was home. I could tell Jack was keeping the flight attendants busy and I was happy that someone else was helping him out.

We made it back to Salt Lake and Jack's girlfriend was there to meet him. She seemed somewhat sane, but maybe a little frazzled. Again though, no apology from her or even a thank you. I had to give Jack his snow globes that I'd carefully packed in my suitcase after I realized he was going to either try to take through security or leave in his duffle bag without anything to protect them from baggage handler abuse. Jack assured me he'd see me tomorrow at work. I don't know that I'm looking forward to that, but I am curious to see if he'll seem normal in a setting that's comfortable to him. I keep thinking back to the few months that I've known Jack and I didn't see anything that would indicate he wasn't quite right. I know for sure that I don't want to go on another trip with him and I wouldn't wish that on any of my colleagues. Then again, I'm pretty sure he shouldn't be traveling by himself either. Well, this isn't really my problem now. I do need to talk some more to my boss and his boss and let them figure it out. Sometimes it's really nice not to be the boss of any body. Thanks for reading my lengthy story.

P.S. Unfortunately I did not see Jack at work the next day because he had to check himself into a psych ward. I’m not kidding. I have traveled with him since that fateful trip, oh so long ago, and he was perfectly fine. In fact, he’s now a good travel buddy.