My Toronto Adventure

My Toronto trip was very quick, and I am very, very tired right now. I just got back, and I must say I had quite an adventure!

My flight was supposed to leave at 6:39 AM on Tuesday, so I dutifully set my alarm to go off at 4:00 AM. I packed everything, laid out my clothes for the next day, and set everything by the door so I would be able to get myself together & out the door by 4:30AM. I also checked in online & printed my boarding pass. This would leave me plenty of time (I thought) to get to the airport, which is about 45 minutes from my house.

I don't know what happened, but the alarm never went off. I opened my eyes at 4 minutes to 5:00. I used those 4 minutes very well, and somehow managed to get showered, brushed, and dressed by 5AM. Being a good half hour behind, I began to plot my drive (over the speed limit for sure), my parking arrangement (valet), and my sprint through the terminal through security & at the gate with a couple of minutes to spare.

Everything happened as planned... except when I got to the terminal (at 5:51AM), I learned that my flight had been canceled & I'd been rebooked on a 9:15AM flight. DOH!!!

I also learned that one of my co-workers who was traveling with me had sent a text message at 4:30 to tell me about the change... so if I'd just taken the 30 seconds to check my phone, or look for a flight status, I'd have had a much better morning.

Feeling guilty about the valet parking, now that I had a good 3 hours before my flight, I retrieved the car & moved it to long-term parking. I paid $10 for about 5 minutes of valet parking. :)

Unfortunately, the adventure doesn't end there. My manager was also on the flight, and before we got on the plane, I was trying to help him with his wireless connection & somehow managed to lock him out of his account. He was NOT a happy camper!

The flight was extremely turbulent & the pilot would only go about 19,000 feet up... when we got to the Toronto airport, he informed us that there was a lot of fog and visibility under 200 feet so he couldn't see the runway or the approach. We circled the airport for about 40 minutes hoping it would clear, but ultimately we had to divert to Buffalo, NY.

We landed, refueled, and were back in the air in about an hour. We got plenty of fuel so we could continue circling Toronto! Eventually, the fog cleared enough for the pilot to land, and we got to the gate at about 1:30.

But the adventure doesn't end there either!! I'm not a very frequent flier, and I've only got one stamp in my passport. I apparently don't know the rules about how to answer questions at customs! Apparently I'm either too honest, too naive, or too chatty for my own good. I ended up getting detained by immigration so they could get to the bottom of why I was really in the country!

Fortunately, I wasn't detained long, but we were all pretty famished & had to stop for something to eat quickly. We didn't get to the office until around 3:15, and we didn't check in at our hotel until after 9PM. It was quite a long day.

My trip back was waaaay less eventful... today was also a pretty long day, up at 6AM, worked a full day, got on a plane, and now I'm back home just after 10PM.

I can't wait to go to sleep, so that's where I am headed right now!

Happy quilting!