(no subject)
Well... there's been a lot of bumming in this thing lately... and if anyone reading this is severely Piscean like me... you're probably bummin now too.... lol, there is the extent of my "coolness"... two pieces of slang... yo....
Well, I figure, since this thing has been depressing, it is time to lighten it up! Why? Because I just started flipping through other people's journals and decided to write about one of my own trips... twas this summer... and lordy, was it ever a journey....
It started out fine... there I was, the night before I was supposed to leave, packing... for those that know me, this should not come as any surprise... I often will not pack until an hour before I have to leave, but I was not getting up that early.... I was talking to Mike at the time... and he was laughing at me... well not so much me, as my attempts to get all of my stuff actually inside a suitcase.... it took all 180 pounds of me, but eventually, it was pressure packed, and sitting neatly beside my duffle bag, which was filled with things you wouldn't want in a suitcase... like shampoo.... definately not suitcase material.... if it was going to explode, let it explode on my shoes, which are always too odd shaped to put in a suitcase, and they leave footprints on your shirts... anyways, let the shampoo get on the shoes, and not every piece of clothing I own. Speaking of that, a big shoutout goes out to my mom, which, I know, is unusual for me, but thanks for doing all my laundry, because you know I wouldn't have done it myself... I would have been in WI with a bag full of dirty clothes and nothing to wear. mmm, Candy... I bought ice tea and candy and am currently writing this just before, and probably during public relations for those who are wondering.
However, after Mike signed off for the night, and wished me luck with the trip... and also advised me to not open that suitcase again until I was safely in the confines of wherever I was staying, it was time for the first major step... the shutdown.
Those that know me well, know my internet is cable, and runs, well, pretty much 100% of the time.... It's just easier for me not to shut my computer off, because it takes forever to get it started back up again. But, since I was going to be gone for 10 days.... it had to be turned off. As I finished my final shutdowns and shoutouts, I stopped and looked around the room... it was empty.... well... no it wasn't.... but there were no clothes... and something was missing.... looking with horror towards my suitcase it suddenly occured to me..... I packed what I was supposed to wear tomorrow.... an hour later, my outfit for the next day was lying neatly on my computer chair, and I had *finally* gotten my bag closed again. Setting the clock, I went to sleep, and awoke 4 hours later to the local radio morning show hosts just beginning thier show... Everybody, listen to the Peak 107.3 morning show, it rocks. As I finally made the room fall back into focus, and looked at the clock, I half rolled, half fell out of bed and dragged myself to my bathroom where I showered, and did all that usual girl stuff, before tossing all those things into my duffle bag (because fuck if I was going to open that damn suitcase again). So there I was, ready to go... before I realized that I had better make sure I don't have airline restricitons on my baggage... checking, I found you could carry 75 pounds of baggage, and mine weighed in at a modest 52.... so I was alright. Dragging my stuff up the stairs, I threw it in the back of the truck, ate half of the leftovers from dinner with Kyle the night before for breakfast (Hey, I paid for them, and the vultures in my house were going to eat them.... so I figured I should have some for breakfast... that... and I don't like cereal). I wasn't going to have breakfast, but in the end I was glad I did, more about why later.
Ahh, after much yelling and dragging and squishing of my cat and puppy dog, we were off to the airport. Bouncing along in the back of the truck, camera bag loaded securely in my lap, I listened once again to the lectures "Don't make jokes in the airport, make sure you get through security, give yourself lots of time... be careful, if you don't like it, come home, call us every day!" and stared out the window, awaiting for the nearing horizon of the Calgary Airport.
As we got to the airport, I set out of my mission to retrieve my best friend, Finally locating her (it only took 20 minutes of us screaming at the top of our lungs on cell phones, so we could both keep in contact, and realize if we were nearing eachother) we set out to drop our baggage off. The baggage checker was nice enough, she told us roughly where we were going once we landed in toronto, and what on earth we would do about our bags... and how to get through customs... and we were off.
Well, we were supposed to be off, instead, we ended up in the Cheer's Lookalike bar with my best friend's mom, who demanded we have breakfast... I had water, having already eaten plenty of breakfast. As we left for our boarding gate, we said our final goodbyes, and found out we had to spend a very boring hour at the airline news stand, as our plane was not yet boarding...
Finally! We are on the plane! As we were seated, we basked in the glory of recieving the door seats, the seats single handedly having the most legroom on the plane.... as there was 6 feet of glorious space in front of us.... nevermind that we were some of the shortest people on the plane.... and had no window, which was disappointing.
Windows aside, we had finally taken off, and we both took advantage of the inflight movie, Life or Something Like It... it wasn't bad, and it was a good way to keep my mind off the thick knot beginning to form in the pit of my stomache, it had been there all day, but as we were actually in the air now, no turning back, it was getting worse.
The airline food didn't help that either.... as our lunch was presented to us, we both looked at eachother in dismay... 2 cold raviolis, 3 pieces if cold asparagus, a leaf of lettuce, and some chunks of random processed luncheon meat and cheese.... a single pad of not real butter, and a bun that was easily 4 days old.... whole wheat no less... Well, since I don't eat whole wheat, or pig products.... this presented a challenge. Picking through the food, i ate what I could, and took solace in the dessert brownie, which was at least edible.... it was wrapped, they couldn't screw it up.
By the end of our flight.... we had both had several cans of pop, in an effort to make up for the lack of food, and REALLY needed to pee.... badly... we took turns waiting at the baggage carosel for our luggage.... which was dropped late. Noticing we had all of 15 minutes until our plane was supposed to take off, we raced through customs, dumping our bags, setting off camera flashes and trying to get my cell phone back from the guy who was mesmorized by the holigram on my screen... Had it taken any longer, I would have just given him the damn sticker. As we ran to immigration, we were greeted by an overly hostile man who didn't know how I knew friends in the states, I told him that it wasn't any of his business, but we met online and he nodded me through, satisfied with my Canadian citizenship and we dove through security again. Finding a bus marked with our terminal, we hopped on, and smiled to the guy next to us as the bus started rolling "What are you going to Milwaukee for?" "Milwaukee? I'm going to Minneapolis..." Panic. Racing up to the front of the bus, we pounded on the window, the bus driver pulls a 180, and we blast out the door, sprinting full force towards our gate, on the other side of the airport. Toronto Airport is too fucking big. Down the stairs we plunged, Camera bag slamming into my ass as I lept over the railing of the staircase and vaulted over terminal chairs...getting there right as the door closed. OUR BAGS ARE ON THE PLANE. no they are not, YES THEY ARE. Nope. And neither are you.
Toronto... stranded in Toronto... to the flight desk we raced, as this was the last flight to Milwaukee today. I'm busy, wait here, snaps the flight attendant as she walks away. Stranded. As we wait, and wait, we grow impatient, until we are screaming for assistance.... finally, some attention. I grow frantic in my explination, words streaming together. I am a fast talker, I can talk at speeds that are almost inconcievable when I get in a mood. Slow down, explain slowly says the flight booker, noticing my hyperventilation. Choking on my own words, I grab my cell phone and stalk off, trying to call Greg, who would be waiting for us in MKE shortly... No Service. My friend tries to explian our situation, being far more calm and rational then I as I run over there again, screaming and swearing and dump the entire contents of my purse across the desk, grabbing a phone card and running over to a pay phone.... Doesn't work. Frantic... Must... not... get... emotional... Calling the man, I scream, voice shaking, that the phone card is not working, numbers written across my entire hand, I finally get through to Calgary... Busy. Fuck Ryan. Call Dad on Cell.... I lose it, bursting into tears, stranded in Toronto Airport. He tells me try home again. I call again. Get Greg's number... there I am, in the middle of Toronto Airport, Mascara streaked down my face, having a nervous breakdown, and unable to get ahold of someone who is now going to be waiting for the next 5 hours in Milwaukee international. Get back to the desk, Flight booker is nice... calm... she tells me a story of being stuck in Bangkok and getting jeans cheap... Sweet of her to try... yet as she traces our bags... 3 are on that plane... she says scratching her head... how did that happen? One... well... let's hope it follows you... Great. Grabbing our new tickets, we head up to our flight, now going to Chicago... Radio Milwaukee I say, we can't. Great. Sitting on the plane we sit in our seats, staring out the window... the Flight attendants, sweet... get us snacks and pop, seeing our obvious dismay. Landing in Chicago... starving... need food. We find our terminal, running into a sweet woman and her kids from Toronto...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU whoever you are... we met a lot of nice people like that.... but thanks so much for your concern and best wishes. Off to find food... things are closing...we wrangle overpriced chinese food and some lousy McDonalds.... ahhh, food.... finally finished, we head out to our terminal, plane is late.... of course it is... Call Greg... "We're in Chicago" "You're in Chicago..." "Yes, Don't ask, we are coming, we'll explain later." "Alright...." Off we go. Finally the plane arrives... A SESNA?!?!?! We are security searched... again.... yarg. Finally, 21 minutes later, landing in MKE.... Greg and Justin, holding 3 of our bags... the fourth drops... thank god. Off we go... sitting at Greg's house, talking, petting the cats and the dog... reaching hour 24.... off to bed... guestroom... crickets... ARRG! Not used to crickets, they keep getting louder, Lena and I burst into laughter... it is all we can do... but hey, at least we're here?
There's the first in a three part series, our journey to Wisconsin. Tune in later for yet another exciting account.
Well, I figure, since this thing has been depressing, it is time to lighten it up! Why? Because I just started flipping through other people's journals and decided to write about one of my own trips... twas this summer... and lordy, was it ever a journey....
It started out fine... there I was, the night before I was supposed to leave, packing... for those that know me, this should not come as any surprise... I often will not pack until an hour before I have to leave, but I was not getting up that early.... I was talking to Mike at the time... and he was laughing at me... well not so much me, as my attempts to get all of my stuff actually inside a suitcase.... it took all 180 pounds of me, but eventually, it was pressure packed, and sitting neatly beside my duffle bag, which was filled with things you wouldn't want in a suitcase... like shampoo.... definately not suitcase material.... if it was going to explode, let it explode on my shoes, which are always too odd shaped to put in a suitcase, and they leave footprints on your shirts... anyways, let the shampoo get on the shoes, and not every piece of clothing I own. Speaking of that, a big shoutout goes out to my mom, which, I know, is unusual for me, but thanks for doing all my laundry, because you know I wouldn't have done it myself... I would have been in WI with a bag full of dirty clothes and nothing to wear. mmm, Candy... I bought ice tea and candy and am currently writing this just before, and probably during public relations for those who are wondering.
However, after Mike signed off for the night, and wished me luck with the trip... and also advised me to not open that suitcase again until I was safely in the confines of wherever I was staying, it was time for the first major step... the shutdown.
Those that know me well, know my internet is cable, and runs, well, pretty much 100% of the time.... It's just easier for me not to shut my computer off, because it takes forever to get it started back up again. But, since I was going to be gone for 10 days.... it had to be turned off. As I finished my final shutdowns and shoutouts, I stopped and looked around the room... it was empty.... well... no it wasn't.... but there were no clothes... and something was missing.... looking with horror towards my suitcase it suddenly occured to me..... I packed what I was supposed to wear tomorrow.... an hour later, my outfit for the next day was lying neatly on my computer chair, and I had *finally* gotten my bag closed again. Setting the clock, I went to sleep, and awoke 4 hours later to the local radio morning show hosts just beginning thier show... Everybody, listen to the Peak 107.3 morning show, it rocks. As I finally made the room fall back into focus, and looked at the clock, I half rolled, half fell out of bed and dragged myself to my bathroom where I showered, and did all that usual girl stuff, before tossing all those things into my duffle bag (because fuck if I was going to open that damn suitcase again). So there I was, ready to go... before I realized that I had better make sure I don't have airline restricitons on my baggage... checking, I found you could carry 75 pounds of baggage, and mine weighed in at a modest 52.... so I was alright. Dragging my stuff up the stairs, I threw it in the back of the truck, ate half of the leftovers from dinner with Kyle the night before for breakfast (Hey, I paid for them, and the vultures in my house were going to eat them.... so I figured I should have some for breakfast... that... and I don't like cereal). I wasn't going to have breakfast, but in the end I was glad I did, more about why later.
Ahh, after much yelling and dragging and squishing of my cat and puppy dog, we were off to the airport. Bouncing along in the back of the truck, camera bag loaded securely in my lap, I listened once again to the lectures "Don't make jokes in the airport, make sure you get through security, give yourself lots of time... be careful, if you don't like it, come home, call us every day!" and stared out the window, awaiting for the nearing horizon of the Calgary Airport.
As we got to the airport, I set out of my mission to retrieve my best friend, Finally locating her (it only took 20 minutes of us screaming at the top of our lungs on cell phones, so we could both keep in contact, and realize if we were nearing eachother) we set out to drop our baggage off. The baggage checker was nice enough, she told us roughly where we were going once we landed in toronto, and what on earth we would do about our bags... and how to get through customs... and we were off.
Well, we were supposed to be off, instead, we ended up in the Cheer's Lookalike bar with my best friend's mom, who demanded we have breakfast... I had water, having already eaten plenty of breakfast. As we left for our boarding gate, we said our final goodbyes, and found out we had to spend a very boring hour at the airline news stand, as our plane was not yet boarding...
Finally! We are on the plane! As we were seated, we basked in the glory of recieving the door seats, the seats single handedly having the most legroom on the plane.... as there was 6 feet of glorious space in front of us.... nevermind that we were some of the shortest people on the plane.... and had no window, which was disappointing.
Windows aside, we had finally taken off, and we both took advantage of the inflight movie, Life or Something Like It... it wasn't bad, and it was a good way to keep my mind off the thick knot beginning to form in the pit of my stomache, it had been there all day, but as we were actually in the air now, no turning back, it was getting worse.
The airline food didn't help that either.... as our lunch was presented to us, we both looked at eachother in dismay... 2 cold raviolis, 3 pieces if cold asparagus, a leaf of lettuce, and some chunks of random processed luncheon meat and cheese.... a single pad of not real butter, and a bun that was easily 4 days old.... whole wheat no less... Well, since I don't eat whole wheat, or pig products.... this presented a challenge. Picking through the food, i ate what I could, and took solace in the dessert brownie, which was at least edible.... it was wrapped, they couldn't screw it up.
By the end of our flight.... we had both had several cans of pop, in an effort to make up for the lack of food, and REALLY needed to pee.... badly... we took turns waiting at the baggage carosel for our luggage.... which was dropped late. Noticing we had all of 15 minutes until our plane was supposed to take off, we raced through customs, dumping our bags, setting off camera flashes and trying to get my cell phone back from the guy who was mesmorized by the holigram on my screen... Had it taken any longer, I would have just given him the damn sticker. As we ran to immigration, we were greeted by an overly hostile man who didn't know how I knew friends in the states, I told him that it wasn't any of his business, but we met online and he nodded me through, satisfied with my Canadian citizenship and we dove through security again. Finding a bus marked with our terminal, we hopped on, and smiled to the guy next to us as the bus started rolling "What are you going to Milwaukee for?" "Milwaukee? I'm going to Minneapolis..." Panic. Racing up to the front of the bus, we pounded on the window, the bus driver pulls a 180, and we blast out the door, sprinting full force towards our gate, on the other side of the airport. Toronto Airport is too fucking big. Down the stairs we plunged, Camera bag slamming into my ass as I lept over the railing of the staircase and vaulted over terminal chairs...getting there right as the door closed. OUR BAGS ARE ON THE PLANE. no they are not, YES THEY ARE. Nope. And neither are you.
Toronto... stranded in Toronto... to the flight desk we raced, as this was the last flight to Milwaukee today. I'm busy, wait here, snaps the flight attendant as she walks away. Stranded. As we wait, and wait, we grow impatient, until we are screaming for assistance.... finally, some attention. I grow frantic in my explination, words streaming together. I am a fast talker, I can talk at speeds that are almost inconcievable when I get in a mood. Slow down, explain slowly says the flight booker, noticing my hyperventilation. Choking on my own words, I grab my cell phone and stalk off, trying to call Greg, who would be waiting for us in MKE shortly... No Service. My friend tries to explian our situation, being far more calm and rational then I as I run over there again, screaming and swearing and dump the entire contents of my purse across the desk, grabbing a phone card and running over to a pay phone.... Doesn't work. Frantic... Must... not... get... emotional... Calling the man, I scream, voice shaking, that the phone card is not working, numbers written across my entire hand, I finally get through to Calgary... Busy. Fuck Ryan. Call Dad on Cell.... I lose it, bursting into tears, stranded in Toronto Airport. He tells me try home again. I call again. Get Greg's number... there I am, in the middle of Toronto Airport, Mascara streaked down my face, having a nervous breakdown, and unable to get ahold of someone who is now going to be waiting for the next 5 hours in Milwaukee international. Get back to the desk, Flight booker is nice... calm... she tells me a story of being stuck in Bangkok and getting jeans cheap... Sweet of her to try... yet as she traces our bags... 3 are on that plane... she says scratching her head... how did that happen? One... well... let's hope it follows you... Great. Grabbing our new tickets, we head up to our flight, now going to Chicago... Radio Milwaukee I say, we can't. Great. Sitting on the plane we sit in our seats, staring out the window... the Flight attendants, sweet... get us snacks and pop, seeing our obvious dismay. Landing in Chicago... starving... need food. We find our terminal, running into a sweet woman and her kids from Toronto...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU whoever you are... we met a lot of nice people like that.... but thanks so much for your concern and best wishes. Off to find food... things are closing...we wrangle overpriced chinese food and some lousy McDonalds.... ahhh, food.... finally finished, we head out to our terminal, plane is late.... of course it is... Call Greg... "We're in Chicago" "You're in Chicago..." "Yes, Don't ask, we are coming, we'll explain later." "Alright...." Off we go. Finally the plane arrives... A SESNA?!?!?! We are security searched... again.... yarg. Finally, 21 minutes later, landing in MKE.... Greg and Justin, holding 3 of our bags... the fourth drops... thank god. Off we go... sitting at Greg's house, talking, petting the cats and the dog... reaching hour 24.... off to bed... guestroom... crickets... ARRG! Not used to crickets, they keep getting louder, Lena and I burst into laughter... it is all we can do... but hey, at least we're here?
There's the first in a three part series, our journey to Wisconsin. Tune in later for yet another exciting account.