Traveling for pleasure is glamorous.  Traveling for work is exhausting.   Does anyone disagree?   But when you work for Noble Publishing Superpower, they interject really cool and novel “stuff” into your day to combat the fatigue and pump you up.  Smart, aren’t they?   The first day of our Summer Sales Conference wasn’t applicable to my division, so a couple of colleagues and I flew in together on Monday afternoon.  After checking in, we stood in the lobby comparing room floor notes.   I audibly gasped.  (Yes, I do this almost on a daily basis – o.k. a daily basis – which is why I continually overuse this phrase in blog posts. Sorry, folks.)   I gasped again.  I heard a familiar sound that I hadn’t heard live in YEARS.  An ethereal, mystical sound that takes me to another time, another place, another world.   I’ll throw you a couple of hints:  Scotland.  Kilts.   Are you with me?   BAGPIPES!   Take.  My.  Breath.  Away.   Since I was a wee lass, I have been enchanted by the sound of bagpipes.  I am immediately spell-bound.   I ran to the window of the hotel with my perplexed colleagues in tow.   “LISTEN!!!  DO YOU HEAR THEM???”  (How could they NOT hear them?  They’re bagpipes for heaven’s sake.  They’re incredibly loud.)   More gasping.   “THEY’RE BAGPIPES!!!”  (Duh.)  “I LOVE BAGPIPES!!!”   “Yes, so do we, Michelle.”   “WHERE ARE THEY???  WE MUST FIND THEM!!!”   Fortunately, we have a new male team member who wasn’t lost in emotion over the bagpipes.  He offered, “It sounds as though they might be coming from upstairs.  Let’s go check it out.”   I nearly rolled over him and Britt with my suitcase and computer bag in a mad dash for the elevator.  We arrived at the second floor and headed towards the sound.  We noticed that they were performing on a stage in one of the ballrooms.  Outside the room, the name of Noble Publishing Superpower graced a poster on an easel.   I pushed my luggage up against a wall and sprinted into the ballroom while armed with my camera.  Mr. New Male Team Member and Britt followed.   I snapped photos for my improvised and surprise blog activity.   Thankfully, I remembered that my phone has video.  Pictures of bagpipes can’t compare to <em>that sound.</em>   Video   Our fearless leader with the cool and novel ideas announced the men behind the bagpipes:  the Chicago PD.   This made a gasping sap like me tear up with respect and reverence.   Going into Day 28?, Mr. New Male Team Member was interested in how I was going to manage squeezing a soul-scintillating activity into a crowded business travel day.   I explained that I was just going to have to let Chicago unfold before me.  It’s CHICAGO!  Surely, something is bound to happen.   Or as <strong>Mondo Beyondo</strong> reminds me, leave room in life for mystery and surprise.   I couldn’t have picked a more captivating surprise.