I got up extremely early to get ready so I could leave my apartment before 5:30am.  I was supposed to catch a taxi over to the metro station so I wouldn't have to carry my bag all the way over there, but the taxi I called didn't show up when he said he was going to... nor did he come within 20 minutes of when he said... so I decided that, in light of the fact I did have to catch a plane, I would walk to the metro station.  The cab driver, however, called me when I was about halfway there saying he was outside my building... he asked me why I walked there.... I thought it'd be obvious... oh well..

I caught the 5:50am train.  Shortly after taking my seat on the greenline train there at College Park, the guy behind me started talking to me... kinda weird if you ask me... he was totally hitting on me.  Apparently he's some 28 year old dental hygenist in the navy... he kept asking me stuff like, "what's your phone number" or "can I have your email address".  One time he even asked when he would get to see me again!  Yeah, I'd only known him for 5 minutes... he asked my age too and didn't seem to care, but geez he's 28.  And for some reason, I don't really think that I want to ever pick up guys on the metro... just doesn't really excite me... but All I wanted to do that morning was sit there to myself and nod off until I got to the airport... but NO, this guy had to hit on me before it was even 6am!!!!!!

Finally, I made it to Reagan airport and was checking in at the US Airways desk, when I heard someone yell, "Mittens!!"  (that's what I'm known as on the design team, btw)... it was Ryan.  Ryan and Adam had the same flight to Chicago as me and were there checking in at the same time.  It turned out, however, that we had to go check in at the United Airlines desk instead... but we went and hung out and waited for the flight... it went without a hitch.

After arriving in Chicago we headed over to the meeting point and found Dustin and Amy who'd also just arrived from Roanoke.  They went to pick up their luggage and we waited for Dr. Marchman to arrive.  Then once we had everyone, we all went to the bus area and met up with Pratap (one of the Brits) and Gary Paige (their faculty advisor).  We went and rented two mini-vans - perfect since there were 12 of us in all and each van fit 6 people comfortably.

Then we went over to the hotel the Brits were staying at the previous night to wait until Kevin arrived so we could drive to Oshkosh.  There we checked into the dorms we were staying in at U. of Wisconsin - Oshkosh campus.  They were decent rooms, I mean good for dorms.  The girls bathroom was on the floor below us so we had to walk down the stairs everytime we needed to use the facilities, but that was okay.

For dinner we went to this little family restaurant and then afterwards, we stopped at Walmart to stock up on food and stuff for the weekend.  Then we just all hung out for the rest of the night.