November 28th, 2007 Rachel
Writing, writing, writing. Words, sentences and syntax have taken over my life. My mind. My days and nights. While not a bad thing, it does get tedious. Like every sentence (written or spoken) sounds like gibberish. It’s bizarre…and leaves me without inspiration to write some more…the pleasure of writing is still here…but forcing lengthy blog posts…not happening.
Adam and I flew through Thanksgiving this year, deciding to take advantage of the days off to head back to Toronto for some snow. S-N-O-W. SNOOOOOW!!! Mmmmm…besides not having a pair of reasonable shoes (out of five stowed in my bags), our brief winter stint was positively delightful.
Posted in Family, Photos, Toronto | 4 Comments »
June 4th, 2007 Rachel
To everyone who I intended to see in Toronto this week, sorree…I’ll be sticking around Pasadena until July now. All for good reasons, none of which include trying to get out of the fun times we’d planned on. I’m pouting, but also a little relieved that I can stay put for a moment and enjoy a bit of a routine. Just a bit.
Here’s what I’ll have to put up with in the meantime…
I know. Poor me.
Via WikiTravel.
Posted in L.A., Toronto, Un-Traveling | 1 Comment »
April 25th, 2007 Rachel
It would appear that somewhere along the way, a corporate mandate or some other thingamawhoie, maybe a memo, went around to the entire company that went something like this:
To Whom It May Concern:
Should any customer prefer to speak with a human being, it is your duty to be as cranky/misinformed/slow/unhelpful as possible - until they get the message that we’d rather have them use a kiosk or go to our website.
That is all.
Signed,
Mr./Mrs. Person Incharge
Web check-in is pretty much the only way to go now. Waiting until you get to the airport, and insisting on standing in that line that’s twice as long and five million times as slow now serves as some sort of indication that a person is a sucker for pain and enjoys moving two feet every five minutes. However, if you’re unsure of how this process works and you haven’t flown since 1983, clicking your way through check in on your computer, while a rousing game of solitare occupies the other half of your brain would be beyond uncomfortable…like most of us, you’d probably stand in that darn line a few times first before finally saying “never…ever…ever again…”
Now my flights back and forth between Los Angeles and Toronto are usually uneventful - since I’m usually on the redeye or taking the first flight out, I’m generally cranky enough that talking to an overworked/underpaid check-in employee is probably not in my (or his/her) best interest. With a few clicks, I’m checked in, and at most I have to interact with someone briefly to get tags for my checked bags (shoes, people…it’s the shoes that generally make carry on not an option…). But last night provided a new dilemma, as well as a fresh example of the lack of customer care that Air Canada is now oh so well known for.
While I was supposed to be boarding in about 50 minutes, it only took a couple minutes of pouting and one good “pleeeease” from a certain someone for me to roll over and decide to stay through the weekend. On top of that, the last five days have been too full of angst and fretting to really enjoy being back in Toronto. So I called, since that seemed like the right thing to do, and was told it would cost me $650 in fare difference to change the flight.
Silence…a few cricket noises…
“Okay then…well…thanks.” Grrrrrr…..
So I check to see if there’s anything I can do on the website. I don’t know what it is, maybe just because I haven’t done it before, but the thought of changing my flight online seemed weird - very weird. But you can, and I did, because I can (and will) take the exact same route on Sunday as I was supposed to take today for a whopping $40…which consists solely of the mandatory change fee.
Why this option was not presented to me on the phone, other than to see if I’d fold and say “$650 it is…”, I haven’t a clue. Between Saturday and Monday, there were at least three different flight options (two of which that would have been direct even) that I could have switched to for the same price. Ms. Customer Support merely asked what day (”Sunday”) and time “Morning/Mid Day”) I’d like to switch to. Not helpful, not helpful, not helpful…….
Of course, I’m probably more irked by this than I’d normally be since I’ve had far too many run ins with misinformed/unhelpful customer support lately. And that organization just so happens to hold way too many cards for me to risk pointing my finger more directly (at least in writing - buy me a beer…I guarantee your mouth will drop open and “You’re kidding me…” will escape your lips once or twice…)
Could someone please get Canada 3000 up and running again…pretty pleeeeeease?
(Hey, it’s worth a shot - it worked for Adam.)
Posted in Observations, Toronto, Traveling | No Comments »
March 7th, 2007 Rachel
It’s cold. I’m bitter. Forget what I said about missing winter.
In packing two (2) mondo suitcases of everything besides a decent winter jacket. And it would appear every store I bounced through yesterday has rid themselves of mittens and is promoting sunglasses and tank tops. Not so helpful.
Luckily, I have a fantastic Torontonian friend who never moved to Los Angeles and subsequently removed the concepts of cold/winter/frozen tears from her brain to make room for…crap, I knew I forgot to do something…
So now that I’m bundled up in borrowed-wear, I’m able to make my way about the city once more without feeling the cold in my bones (as much). Last night was a GTA Bloggers pub night, which was great fun - they didn’t even mind that I’m technically missing the ‘GTA’ part these days (the 10 month grace period I instituted was well received).
Off to register for CMW…and take advantage of the three hour jump I have on the California work day.
Posted in Blogging, Toronto | 2 Comments »
March 3rd, 2007 Rachel
I drove past an old apartment Adam and I almost rented years and years ago. Fresh faced young’uns…we were all set to leap, before mutually coming to the decision that we weren’t ready and this was not it. At the time, a top of the line pair of rose colored glasses made the baby pink kitchen cabinets and unabashedly out in the open large pile of pot on the table (leading me to believe that and the state of the kitchen cabinets were somehow related…) seem just fine. Maybe not perfect but not a dealbreaker anyway.
What if we had moved in? What if we’d been where we are now…but three years earlier? Yeah, I know…you’re not supposed to play ‘what ifs’ and it’s almost a necessity to have a mug/tshirt/socks or at least heart that say “no regrets!” Well, I’m not, and I wasn’t, regretting…I was/am pondering (that’s what happens when it’s late and you’re headed home).
It’s quite possible we would have loved it, been ready for that step, and ended up somewhere along the lines of where we are now. What I’m most grateful for is that we’ve always been honest enough with each other that the first person who brought up waiting a bit before breaking out the Uhaul boxes wasn’t crucified by the other (I can’t even remember now who said what…). We’re not perfect, but we try hard to remember we’re on the same team here.
I’ll be in Toronto for 2 weeks, before heading to Texas - so if my posts are a little bland looking or lacking in visual goodies, I apologize; I’m writing in Wordpress for now. Oh, and I’ll attend to the kitty pics shortly - for the 75% of you using IE I hear that’s been a gross experience with more than just a tad bit of scrolling.
With a fair amount of snow and biting wind…scarves and ‘real’ boots…It’s actually winter here. I’ve got to say…
I kinda missed it.
Posted in Observations, Personal, Random, Toronto | 1 Comment »
