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January 22, 2008

Ian of the Dead

50%

Posted by KinCross at 5:18 PM | Comments (0)

January 1, 2008

Did the primary buffer panel just fall off my gorram ship?

Today, I flew back to Los Angeles from Ottawa, with enough time to get rested and join some people for the New Year's Eve festivities. That's the summary. The long explanation is far more colourful.

My "day" began at 1:45 a.m. Pacific Time. It was actually 4:45 a.m. in Ottawa where it started. Showered, dressed, and on my way into the snow to get to the airport by 6:00 to clear security. Things were pretty normal with my brother-in-law driving and my sister in the passenger seat. We were chatting about fairly benign stuff when somewhere along the Airport Parkway, the primary buffer panel--er, I mean the hood--of the car just lifted up and rip off in the wind. Thankfully, it seemed to just fly over the top of the car and land by the roadside.

A couple of phone calls and about 15 minutes later, my mom and dad stopped by to pick me up and take me the rest of the way, right after the guy from the CAA showed up to put the car on a platform to take to an auto body shop. Interestingly enough, no one stopped to help in the 15 or so minutes that we were stranded by the roadside. Didn't really expect people going to the airport to stop, but figured maybe someone coming back would have.

"I feel like an idiot saying this, but we are going to be de-icing the plane." (Pilot, Air Canada 441)

Once at the airport, 20 minutes late, everything went very smoothly and I got to the gate before they even started boarding the plane. We were delayed somewhat by the need to de-ice the plane, but that's not uncommon when flying out of snowy airports. Despite that, though, we landed only 3 minutes late, and I was off to my next challenge: retrieving my checked luggage, clearing US Customs and Immigration, and getting to my next gate within 90 minutes.

I think this was more about my worry than any actual problem, though it wasn't helped by the copious number of people who'd been waiting in the claim area when I walked in looking very nervous. One woman kept complaining to her Green Bay Packer-adorned husband that this happens every time in Toronto and they were getting awfully close to their boarding time.

I think I waited for over half an hour for my bag to appear and then almost as much to get through the line for US Customs and Immigration. Fortunately, I've done this many times before and I had all my paperwork fully filled out and ready to go, so I slid right through. Even had time to help out another family in a rush who hadn't filled out their forms yet. Also saw the Packers fan and his family escorted past the line, so I think they made their flight.

I barely remembered to pick up some candies for the office before hopping over to my gate, which was--surprise surprise--also delayed. Almost forgot the candies when I boarded and found myself in a three-way switch to unite two separate families' seating arrangements: me from 27D to 28D, the lady in 28D to 27C, and the boy in 27C to 27D. Whew.

I said I was going to work on my screenplay during this trip and I hadn't really done much with it up to this point. I was fiddling around with the entertainment center embedded in the seatback in front of me when I managed to trap myself on a boring map screen. Alas, the touchscreen was poorly calibrated and I couldn't press the arrow or menu buttons on screen to take me anywhere else. Without any more distractions, what was left but to go to work, really?

I worked on the screenplay for about three hours and managed to get to about 10 pages, although some of it was blocking and descriptions for the intended order of scenes to take me to the end of my first Act. When it got to the point where I was too tired to think anymore--i.e.: I started passing out--I switched over to watching a DVD on my laptop.

I'd never seen The Devil Wears Prada before and I'd had it in my bag for awhile--I always keep 6-7 DVDs in my bag to watch whenever I have some free time--so I popped it in. I only got to see 20 minutes of it before I had to shut everything down to land, but it made for a very quick flight.

Henry picked me up at the airport after a seemingly interminable wait for luggage and then we were off to Brodard for Vietnamese rolls and noodle soups. After that, I was really pretty damned tired, so it was home for a nap.

Got up around 9 pm, showered again, and jumped in the car. Maybe if I'd called someone before jumping in the car, I might have known where I was going, but I didn't. Instead, I just started driving toward Santa Monica until I found Rod, who gave me directions to a party in Culver City.

Woohoo! Fun party with a core group of my favourite people! Harris was the host and there were a tonne of people there: Natalie and Alejandro, Erin and Jorge, Jenni and Rod, Deborah, Jessica, Buckley, Shadee, Harris' new girlfriend Jen, Joe and his new girlfriend Kirby, and CJ and Courtney (I hope I spelled that right because I heard Corny the first time through). I was so happy to see them and it was a great evening, that started with me walking in on someone guessing "circumscision" in a game of Taboo and ended with me walking a number of people out to their cars.

Y'might think that the evening would have ended at that point, but not really. I went home and watched the rest of The Devil Wears Prada, then started plinking through the extra features when I got a call around 3:30 am from Jerah. She and her party buddies were stranded without a sober driver after a party they were at ended early due to a mishap. So, back in the car and off to downtown to ferry them back to Jerah's for the night. Probably the most amusing part of the drive was trying to go slow an easy so as not to upset the drunks. My driving style is usually... aggressive.

Got back home shortly after 5, which was right before Henry went out to do the early dawn hike up to Griffith Park, though we missed each other in the darkness.

All in all, I think I did everything that I love to do today. I got to spend it with my family, fly, work on my screenplay, eat at a new restaurant, spend time with friends, watch a good movie, and help someone in need.

Happy New Year, everyone. May it be your best one yet.

Posted by KinCross at 5:20 AM | Comments (0)