Things I don't need to see on the news while I'm at a hotel

So I'm in Chicago at a Shopper Marketing conference with some coworkers and even though I spend most of the waking hours in various windowless meeting rooms, I am falling in love with this city.

It's my first time here, and it reminds me so much of Boston that I want to cry. I can't wait to plan a trip back with Mr. KK in the fall.

This morning I am getting ready to start my day with 500 strangers at the perky hour of 8am and I flick on the Today Show. What fun news stories do I see? Two plane crashes and a hotel prank caller.

Apparently these prank callers are dialing up hotel guests in the middle of the night, telling them about a gas leak in the hotel, and telling them to break a window so they can get fresh air. People are freaking out and doing it, smashing windows with irons and anything else they can get their hands on.

I blame the economy for this. Too many people are cutting back on real entertainment – such as movies, cruises, dinners out – that they are turning to more "home-based" fun. Like pranking hotels. And probably setting lawn furniture on fire. And shooting squirrels with BB guns.

Crazy people aside, my coworkers and I have sort of termed this trip the "bucket list" trip, as we're having many experiences that are enabling us to cross things off our eternal to-do lists.

This trip I am crossing off the following items:

• visit Chicago
• eat frogs legs (and lived to tell about it! think: a cross between chicken and fish)
• see Billy Joel and Elton John together in concert (the President of the Company surprised us with tickets...and they're playing at Wrigley Field!)
• meet the most annoying woman on the planet (and she's an analyst...so she's annoying about numbers and charts and graphs – quite a combo)
• freeze my nipples off (seriously, it's THAT cold in these conference rooms...can someone please turn up the frickin' heat???)

We are sneaking out for a little shopping in a bit...to do a little shopper marketing of our own.