Hercules, Polar Vortex, and 231 Travelers

I am finally unclenching from the intensity of the past week. January 3 - 6 was my company's annual GM Conference where we bring all the General Managers and our Zone Support teams from across the country to Chicago. In January. Because there's no risk in that. And I was the lone soul booking all the travel. Some quick stats for you...

• I booked 245 people on flights and was expecting 231 to actually travel.
• Passengers were coming from 20 different airports on 44 different flights on Friday. Monday's return was consolidated to 20 flights.
• On Friday, only 103 passengers arrived on the originally booked carrier (but, not necessarily their original flight.)
• On  Monday, only 62 people departed on their originally booked flights.

Although flights were grounded, trains weren't running, and roads were closed, I (with a small team under my direction) managed to get all, but 9, of the people to the conference by mid-morning Saturday and everyone was back home by Wednesday night. Did I mention our work email server went down and I was communicating constantly changing travel information over the phone?

I worked from 6:00 AM to nearly 9:00 PM on Friday, spent the majority of Saturday trying to untangle the mess of Friday and start collecting refunds, and then all Sunday afternoon doing normal conference activities. Monday morning I headed out to catch the 5:50 AM train in 30-below windchill and just as I saw the train come into sight and it was announced over the speaker, I heard a loud crunching sound. The train had hit a semi about half a mile from my stop (no one was hurt, thankfully). I hustled back to the house, pounded for Mark to let me in (after 25 minutes outside I could no longer feel my fingers to use my key), then jumped in the car and headed downtown. At 7:25 AM the first flight cancellation rolled in and I worked non-stop until 7:30 PM that night to get all of my people alternate travel arragements.

Meanwhile, Mark and both kids were sick at home.

I am soooooo ready for Friday.