April 18th, 2008 Rachel
I’m pretty sure this much traveling would be absolutely intolerable if I didn’t know as many people as I do in this town…or have at least an idea of how I can distract myself on a regular old Tuesday night. But, it’s not the same as being home…
Lucky for me, on top of being busy enough for the days to pass by at an efficient clip, we have blackberries. Which make impromptu sappy “MISS YOOOOOOOU” PINs and photojournaling far easier in practice and on our collective couple melancholy.
For instance…
I figured I’d better stop here…but know there are more of these seemingly innocuous little moments, thoughts and randomness captured and sent to me across a couple of timezones and countries.
This weekend I’ll be home again for a brief few days before jetting off once more 48 hours later. The mutual appreciation for each other’s presence has grown, even if certain side effects like unbalanced household maintenance can cause some grumbles from both sides. S’okay. In two weeks we’ll be celebrating the two year anniversary of our ‘Civil Union Day’. Around this time seven years ago we both realized the other even really existed. As inconvenient as extended travels are…I’m glad we’re both in ‘the good’.
Posted in Blackberry love, Family, Photos, Traveling | No Comments »
March 15th, 2008 Rachel
You have until March 20th to take advantage of Air Canada’s ridiculously good deal on flight passes for April and May. If you travel even a moderate amount, this just may be a decent enough deal for you to invest in unlimited access to North America (or just East and West regions). Having heard for a couple years now about how sweet beans this luxury is, I’m delighted to finally get to experience it myself in a few weeks. Spontaneous trips to…does it even matter?…here I come!
Posted in Traveling | No Comments »
February 4th, 2008 Rachel
I’m back in Los Angeles…at least for the next 72 hours. My ‘to do’ list keeps growing and the hours keep ticking by. One major ‘to do’ would be packing - there’s still a lot left. I’m not sure how many people or how many times I’ve heard “Just let the movers do it! They’ll pack your stuff!”. But alas, that won’t be happening. Not only because I’m a control freak, but also because I’m a stubborn arse who doesn’t like giving people the opportunity to say “I told you so.” Even if I’m puttering to the plane on Thursday half awake and bleary eyed, I will have everything done. As Harley as my witness.
For my return on Sunday, I was supposed to be going through DFW - the price difference between a direct vs. 1 stop flight was approximately $300. Argh. That’s fine, I can deal with layovers that don’t involve carting around angry kitties.
As I got to the front counter at YYZ, I let the agent know that the kiosk wasn’t letting me check in because it thinks I still have my pet, when I don’t - she stayed. He looked at me like I was deranged and said…
American Airlines Agent (AAA): “What did you do with your pet?”
Me: “Oh,” I replied, trying to figure out how I could sum up the last 3 weeks into as few words as possible. “She’s with my husband - we’re moving back here. I have to go deal with movers.”
AAA: “Ah…”
Good. Mission accomplished.
Type, type, type, type, type….<pause>…type, type, type.
AAA: “Do you want to go on a direct flight?”
Me: “Um….yeah! Of course! If one is available.”
Type, type, type…<pause>…type, type….<pause>…type, type, type.
AAA: “Hang on. I lie. You don’t lie.”
Me: “Wha…?”
Taps agent to his left on the shoulder.
AAA: “Could you approve this? She needs to get to LA directly - it’s an emergency, she’s running late.”
Yes. My American Airlines Ticket Agent went all stealth opps on me and got me on the direct flight. AMAZING.
I love traveling.
Posted in L.A., Toronto, Traveling | 3 Comments »
January 26th, 2008 Rachel
Yesterday was a long one. First thing in the morning, there’s nothing I like to do more than wrestle two cats to the ground and shove pills down their throats. Adam tried to help by suggesting that we “hide” the pills in tuna. I was tired enough that I didn’t think this one through at all and figured it was worth a shot. Oh, they enjoyed the tuna…but were careful to make sure the hot pink pill never touched their lips voluntarily. I may or may not have held this against him for at least an hour. Until common sense returned.
With the cats packed and our luggage stowed in the car, we set off to LAX a half hour later than I had hoped. Somehow the fact that it was Friday (which means that everyone and their mother is on the freeway) had also escaped our brains as well. Brilliant.
Didn’t matter - we got there in plenty of time and by then the kitties had started to doze a little…though they would continue to fight the sleepies until we landed. Much to my surprise, everyone was absolutely 100% kind and considerate about the fact that we were trucking through the airport with nearly forty pounds of feline.
At the security check, Adam was in charge of pulling laptops out while I readied Louie for him to carry through the metal detector. Yes, you have to pull them out so the carriers can go through. Not a big deal - they were both slow to react and not really fazed by the activity…and they each had harnesses/leashes on, just in case. Tucker came next, was noticeably unimpressed, but again - his ninja-like tendencies were curbed by the drugs.
Once we got through, it was smooth sailing until boarding. I’d hoped that since we were window/middle, we board early to get the cats settled. No go. So instead we had to wait until Group 4 was called, trudge down the aisle trying not to smack someone in the head with our bags and pounce on the poor soul in 19D who couldn’t have anticipated that four living things would end up beside him.
Luckily, another seat in an empty row a little further back came available. Relief all around in row 19.
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. Nanny Diaries, some music, a little reading and plenty of hot tea. Adam and I had agreed ahead of time that we would wait for everyone to get off the plane first, then we’d get out. 
Being that person holding up the line sucks, even when it’s just difficulty getting a duffle bag out of the overhead bin. We didn’t know how hard it would be to get everything organized, and weren’t willing to risk a trampling by angry travellers.
When the coast was clear, we started to pull our bags down and I carefully worked on getting the boys out from under the seats (as you may have noticed, they were turned on their sides to fit). Out comes one of the flight attendants, bundled up in winter wear and looking impatient.
Flight Attendant (FA): Oh. You’re still here. <insert pursed lips and narrow eyes>
Me: Yep - just wanted to let everyone go ahead of us - getting all our stuff together.
FA: Uh-huh.
This is where we continued packign and tried to ignore her impatient staring.
FA: *snort*…all I can say is, Just don’t have kids - because you’d NEVER get out of here.
This is where I made a mental note that this blog post was going to be a long one.
FA: Oh God. Um…you’re probably trying to have kids, huh? Now that I say that…right?
This is where I started racking my brain for ideas on how the next words that came out her mouth COULD BE ANY MORE AWKWARD AND BEAUTIFULLY INAPPROPRIATE.
I love it. The look on her face when she realized what she’d said was priceless. On more sleep, I might have messed with her head a bit, but instead I assured her we weren’t offended, all was fine and to have a great night.
Lucky for me, we still have two more trips like this to go. Let’s hope they all go this well.
Posted in Cats, Photos, Traveling | 3 Comments »
January 9th, 2008 Rachel
Traffic, traffic everywhere…an unavoidable consequence of 200,000+ people descending on one city.
Posted in Photos, Traveling | No Comments »
I’m pretty sure this much traveling would be absolutely intolerable if I didn’t know as many people as I do in this town…or have at least an idea of how I can distract myself on a regular old Tuesday night. But, it’s not the same as being home…
I figured I’d better stop here…but know there are more of these seemingly innocuous little moments, thoughts and randomness captured and sent to me across a couple of timezones and countries.
