Well, I'll be in Aspen. Skiing. With actual snow. (btvs 3:10)
Okay, I wasn’t really in Aspen and there was no skiing (which is good because me skiing is mostly me falling down) but there was snow and cold and Buffalo.
First, I should start by saying that I had a wonderful visit with Camisha in Memphis!! I met lots of her friends and fellow grad students and department members, and attended the class she teaches (anyone who saw her moderating at Writercon has probably already guessed that she’s a fabulous teacher - very engaging!). There was, of course, a lot of TV watching (including some of the first season of Everwood!), but we did take in a play as well (Medea). Camisha took me to a very cool Blues club, Wild Bill’s, which has lots of very well-dressed regulars and awesome music. Funnily enough it has a myspace page here (it doesn’t seem like a myspace kind of place, although this may explain the presence of very scary preppy rich white kids, who fortunately didn’t stay too long so they didn’t ruin our fun). I also spent some time at the National Civil Rights Museum, which is a fascinating place that I could definitely spend more time in.
The best part of my trip was Camisha, and getting to spend time with her. /sappy
I was, of course, sad about going home but the knowledge that I’ll be seeing her the first weekend in November was/is very cheering!!
So, that was the good (very good) part of my trip, unfortunately my travels home were not so good. I actually traveled on Friday the 13th, which I hadn’t worried about and have now vowed to never travel on a Friday the 13th again!
Once I was in Atlanta waiting for my connecting flight to Buffalo, I discovered that Buffalo had been hit by a horrible freak storm. On Thursday and Friday (the 12th and 13th) they got about 2 feet of snow, which knocked out the power to most of the city. An USA Today article reported yesterday: Over 100,000 still powerless in Buffalo five days after record snowfall. We were informed that the Buffalo airport was closed but it may be opening at 3pm (my flight left at 2:20pm). For some reason, I didn’t connect that this was a big deal. I’m from Canada, we’re used to snow, and I get all the Buffalo TV stations and know that it gets lots of snow all the time (Buffalo tends to get way more snow that we do in Toronto because of the lake effect, which basically dumps snow on Buffalo). I figured it was just the suddenness of the storm and they’d have everything cleaned up in no time.
I remained optimistic and was pleased when we boarded the plane at 3pm, and the pilot announced that the airport was open. We only arrived in an hour later than scheduled (5:30pm), and I was holding out hope that I’d be still able to catch the 6:30pm bus back to Toronto. My hope quickly faded when it became apparent that things were more serious than a few flakes of snow. We had to walk down the steps onto the tarmac and through the maintenance area of the airport. One passenger who’d been given directions stopped and said “I think we’re going the wrong way, the ceiling’s caving in here.” But we actually were going the right way! After more hallways and stairs, we arrived in the public part of the airport to discover it was clearly running on generators (minimal lights and cold).
While waiting for the luggage, I called Camisha and she found out other bus times for me (there’s 2 different bus lines that run between Toronto and Buffalo). It was 6:30pm at this point and there was a 7:15pm bus, so the plan was to quickly grab a cab and zoom down to the bus station. Fortunately my luggage had finally arrived so I rushed outside (it was very cold and windy, and I cursed my fall jacket that was perfect for Memphis). There was all these temporary signs pasted over the regular signs which was totally confusing. I turned to an airport employee and inquired where to catch a cab, and he directed me over this desolate-looking waiting area. I hurried over, navigating around the mounds of slushy snow and there wasn’t a cab in sight. After a few minutes (and another passenger confirming this was where the cabs should be), I determined this couldn’t be right and started back to the main airport entrance/exit. I asked another airport employee who explained that where I’d been sent was where the cabs normally are, and then he kindly took me back to where I could get a cab.
Then there was waiting in a long line outside for about an hour because there were hardly any cabs running. During this time I became so cold I was shaking and on the verge of tears - even the chocolate chip cookie I ate didn’t help because sometimes even chocolate can’t make up for a warm jacket and mittens. I was like “If I had known it was this bad in Buffalo, I could have stayed a few days longer in Memphis!” Oh yeah, because by this point I’d discovered out that Buffalo was in a State of Emergency!! FINALLY, my cab came! Another guy, Harry, and myself got into what was the 3rd cab that had arrived during that hour wait (I’d missed the 7:15pm bus and was hoping to catch the 9pm one) and headed to the bus station.
It turned out that Harry was also heading to Toronto, which turned out to be very useful that there was two of us heading the same direction (and he was friendly and nice guy to chat with). The cab driver told us about how bad the storm was, and said it looked like the trees had been bombed (I couldn’t see much damage from the fogged up cab but I did see some of the damaged trees - they looked so sad all broken and drooped over).
Once we got to the Buffalo bus terminal things went from bad to worse … and I’d really thought that nothing could be worse than freezing outside the Buffalo airport. We arrived at the ticket counter to buy tickets for Greyhound Canada (the next bus that’s supposed to leave) only to be told by the ticket sellers, “We’re not selling any tickets. No buses are running until the morning.” At this point, I’m completely shocked and have this horrible thought going through my head “I’M STUCK IN BUFFALO.” So, either myself or Harry repeat back “No buses are running?” And the Nice Buffalo Bus Guy (I don’t know his name so I will call him NBBG for short), says “If you’re on Trailways, there may be a bus leaving. If you can stick around till 9pm (it’s about 7:45pm), you should do that (ha! Because this is clearly the best situation for some sightseeing!).
A few minutes later, I call Camisha in tears and proceed to cry on the phone to her about being stuck in Buffalo (because that’s the kind of call you want from your girlfriend when she’s miles away). Fortunately, the call was not only helpful emotionally but also good because Camisha was thinking clearly and helped me realize I’d never told NBBG where I was going, and that I wasn’t on Trailways bus lines. I was so flustered by the “no buses are running” statement that I got Trailways mixed up with Trentway Wager (which was the bus line I did have a ticket for - there’s lots of different bus lines that run out of Buffalo). Anyway, I grabbed NBBG as he was walking past and clarified that I wasn’t on Trailways and that Harry and I were going to Toronto. NBBG told us that the 9pm Greyhound Canada bus would most likely be running and he would check to see if we could pay cash because we didn’t have tickets (they weren’t selling tickets because their computers were down). I believe I said something along the lines of “We’ll do anything to get on that bus.”
I’m very annoyed that we were misled initially that NO buses were running, when there were buses running but not to every location. So if they’d, I don’t know, asked where we were going, I would not have had that stress.
Once the bus thing got sorted out, things were very smooth. NBBG got us on the bus, and I thanked him profusely. Harry gave the driver a US $20 bill to cover my fare since I only had Canadian money left (I gave Harry the fare in Canadian money). We went through Customs quickly and the bus arrived back at the Toronto terminal on time, 12am (only about 3 and 1/2 hours later than I’d expected). I was able to call Camisha and tell her the good news. I also called a friend, told her my sob story and she picked me up at the bus station so I was greeted with a hug and a friendly face.
I’m now very glad that I persevered and got home when I did because things have continued badly in Buffalo (there was flooding the following day(s) which made things worse), so it was probably good that I traveled through the city when they were trying to recover and get back to normal. I feel bad for everyone in that area who’s been without power for so long and has had to boil their water, it sounds like a really challenging time. Of course, I’m so very happy that I didn’t have to spend the night in the Buffalo bus station (there were many people who did, which would have sucked). Never have I been more happy to enter Canada than I was that night.
Since then I’ve been reclusive and frantically trying to catch up at work. I have plans for TV catch-up, fic reading, socializing and writing this weekend - we shall see how much of that I accomplish!
First, I should start by saying that I had a wonderful visit with Camisha in Memphis!! I met lots of her friends and fellow grad students and department members, and attended the class she teaches (anyone who saw her moderating at Writercon has probably already guessed that she’s a fabulous teacher - very engaging!). There was, of course, a lot of TV watching (including some of the first season of Everwood!), but we did take in a play as well (Medea). Camisha took me to a very cool Blues club, Wild Bill’s, which has lots of very well-dressed regulars and awesome music. Funnily enough it has a myspace page here (it doesn’t seem like a myspace kind of place, although this may explain the presence of very scary preppy rich white kids, who fortunately didn’t stay too long so they didn’t ruin our fun). I also spent some time at the National Civil Rights Museum, which is a fascinating place that I could definitely spend more time in.
The best part of my trip was Camisha, and getting to spend time with her. /sappy
I was, of course, sad about going home but the knowledge that I’ll be seeing her the first weekend in November was/is very cheering!!
So, that was the good (very good) part of my trip, unfortunately my travels home were not so good. I actually traveled on Friday the 13th, which I hadn’t worried about and have now vowed to never travel on a Friday the 13th again!
Once I was in Atlanta waiting for my connecting flight to Buffalo, I discovered that Buffalo had been hit by a horrible freak storm. On Thursday and Friday (the 12th and 13th) they got about 2 feet of snow, which knocked out the power to most of the city. An USA Today article reported yesterday: Over 100,000 still powerless in Buffalo five days after record snowfall. We were informed that the Buffalo airport was closed but it may be opening at 3pm (my flight left at 2:20pm). For some reason, I didn’t connect that this was a big deal. I’m from Canada, we’re used to snow, and I get all the Buffalo TV stations and know that it gets lots of snow all the time (Buffalo tends to get way more snow that we do in Toronto because of the lake effect, which basically dumps snow on Buffalo). I figured it was just the suddenness of the storm and they’d have everything cleaned up in no time.
I remained optimistic and was pleased when we boarded the plane at 3pm, and the pilot announced that the airport was open. We only arrived in an hour later than scheduled (5:30pm), and I was holding out hope that I’d be still able to catch the 6:30pm bus back to Toronto. My hope quickly faded when it became apparent that things were more serious than a few flakes of snow. We had to walk down the steps onto the tarmac and through the maintenance area of the airport. One passenger who’d been given directions stopped and said “I think we’re going the wrong way, the ceiling’s caving in here.” But we actually were going the right way! After more hallways and stairs, we arrived in the public part of the airport to discover it was clearly running on generators (minimal lights and cold).
While waiting for the luggage, I called Camisha and she found out other bus times for me (there’s 2 different bus lines that run between Toronto and Buffalo). It was 6:30pm at this point and there was a 7:15pm bus, so the plan was to quickly grab a cab and zoom down to the bus station. Fortunately my luggage had finally arrived so I rushed outside (it was very cold and windy, and I cursed my fall jacket that was perfect for Memphis). There was all these temporary signs pasted over the regular signs which was totally confusing. I turned to an airport employee and inquired where to catch a cab, and he directed me over this desolate-looking waiting area. I hurried over, navigating around the mounds of slushy snow and there wasn’t a cab in sight. After a few minutes (and another passenger confirming this was where the cabs should be), I determined this couldn’t be right and started back to the main airport entrance/exit. I asked another airport employee who explained that where I’d been sent was where the cabs normally are, and then he kindly took me back to where I could get a cab.
Then there was waiting in a long line outside for about an hour because there were hardly any cabs running. During this time I became so cold I was shaking and on the verge of tears - even the chocolate chip cookie I ate didn’t help because sometimes even chocolate can’t make up for a warm jacket and mittens. I was like “If I had known it was this bad in Buffalo, I could have stayed a few days longer in Memphis!” Oh yeah, because by this point I’d discovered out that Buffalo was in a State of Emergency!! FINALLY, my cab came! Another guy, Harry, and myself got into what was the 3rd cab that had arrived during that hour wait (I’d missed the 7:15pm bus and was hoping to catch the 9pm one) and headed to the bus station.
It turned out that Harry was also heading to Toronto, which turned out to be very useful that there was two of us heading the same direction (and he was friendly and nice guy to chat with). The cab driver told us about how bad the storm was, and said it looked like the trees had been bombed (I couldn’t see much damage from the fogged up cab but I did see some of the damaged trees - they looked so sad all broken and drooped over).
Once we got to the Buffalo bus terminal things went from bad to worse … and I’d really thought that nothing could be worse than freezing outside the Buffalo airport. We arrived at the ticket counter to buy tickets for Greyhound Canada (the next bus that’s supposed to leave) only to be told by the ticket sellers, “We’re not selling any tickets. No buses are running until the morning.” At this point, I’m completely shocked and have this horrible thought going through my head “I’M STUCK IN BUFFALO.” So, either myself or Harry repeat back “No buses are running?” And the Nice Buffalo Bus Guy (I don’t know his name so I will call him NBBG for short), says “If you’re on Trailways, there may be a bus leaving. If you can stick around till 9pm (it’s about 7:45pm), you should do that (ha! Because this is clearly the best situation for some sightseeing!).
A few minutes later, I call Camisha in tears and proceed to cry on the phone to her about being stuck in Buffalo (because that’s the kind of call you want from your girlfriend when she’s miles away). Fortunately, the call was not only helpful emotionally but also good because Camisha was thinking clearly and helped me realize I’d never told NBBG where I was going, and that I wasn’t on Trailways bus lines. I was so flustered by the “no buses are running” statement that I got Trailways mixed up with Trentway Wager (which was the bus line I did have a ticket for - there’s lots of different bus lines that run out of Buffalo). Anyway, I grabbed NBBG as he was walking past and clarified that I wasn’t on Trailways and that Harry and I were going to Toronto. NBBG told us that the 9pm Greyhound Canada bus would most likely be running and he would check to see if we could pay cash because we didn’t have tickets (they weren’t selling tickets because their computers were down). I believe I said something along the lines of “We’ll do anything to get on that bus.”
I’m very annoyed that we were misled initially that NO buses were running, when there were buses running but not to every location. So if they’d, I don’t know, asked where we were going, I would not have had that stress.
Once the bus thing got sorted out, things were very smooth. NBBG got us on the bus, and I thanked him profusely. Harry gave the driver a US $20 bill to cover my fare since I only had Canadian money left (I gave Harry the fare in Canadian money). We went through Customs quickly and the bus arrived back at the Toronto terminal on time, 12am (only about 3 and 1/2 hours later than I’d expected). I was able to call Camisha and tell her the good news. I also called a friend, told her my sob story and she picked me up at the bus station so I was greeted with a hug and a friendly face.
I’m now very glad that I persevered and got home when I did because things have continued badly in Buffalo (there was flooding the following day(s) which made things worse), so it was probably good that I traveled through the city when they were trying to recover and get back to normal. I feel bad for everyone in that area who’s been without power for so long and has had to boil their water, it sounds like a really challenging time. Of course, I’m so very happy that I didn’t have to spend the night in the Buffalo bus station (there were many people who did, which would have sucked). Never have I been more happy to enter Canada than I was that night.
Since then I’ve been reclusive and frantically trying to catch up at work. I have plans for TV catch-up, fic reading, socializing and writing this weekend - we shall see how much of that I accomplish!