I'm in Canada, Eh.

I'm always impressed with myself when I can pull off fetes like this. Of course, I learned from the best (thanks Mom). That little suitcase is for 5 days of travel, to a cold place, and I still had room for sneakers and 2 days of work-out clothes, and 3 of my own books. Not only do I hate lugging big bags around, but I was not paying $25 for a checked bag.

I hate it when this happens. I'm not sure why I have a pair of holey socks in the first place, we're not that poor (yet), but these are what I grabbed at 5am this morning. I didn't really care until I got to airport security and realized they still make you take your shoes off. Hello tootsies! Jeez.

So the 1st flight was only an hour long to Tampa (I will do everything in my power to never go through Miami again) and was surprised that we were offered a snack - a little bag of food for free. On the flight attendants' final pass through they even offered us a mint – what were they trying to say? I felt like I was in first class. Thanks Spirit.

And then we were down, an hour passed while I enjoyed free wifi in Tampa (no over air conditioned airport there), and I was up in the air again. This time we landed in Newark. Talk about dreary...and is that snow?!

Look at that smog cloud. You know, I was raised in NYC. I loved a lot of things about it and Central Park is still one of my favorite places on the planet, but I really don't think I could come back to this concrete. This grey and brown. I guess I could, I just don't want to.

Once on the ground, I walked right past the sign for the shuttle that was supposed to take me to the terminal I needed. Would you have seen this? Remember, I was on the other side of the people mover - who looks for a gate that doubles as a shuttle depot?

Next thing you know we were on a city bus. Hmmm. Good thing I had time between flights. Are we still in the airport?

Two hours later, I was going up again. Last one! And can I just say, how is it that I don't remember it getting so dark so early when I was growing up? This 4:30pm sunset is nuts. I'd be in bed by 6pm if I lived up north again. By the time I get to Toronto, I'm guessing the sunset will be at 3:30 or something.

The last flight included a whispering flight attendant making announcements, a bumpy ride which made filling out the immigration from a little difficult, and a landing in fog. I made it through immigration pretty quickly and was surprised my agent was about as friendly as what I was used to in St Kitts (which is not a compliment), and then walked outside to have my bus pull up 2 minutes later and have the driver know it was me. The kicker? There was free wifi on the bus. I used it to notify a few people I was on the ground and then had to stop. Can you say car sick?

The hotel is quite nice. Piano player, high rise (I'm on the 26th floor), elevator with actual elevator music. It's been a long time since I've been on a business trip. It feels weird.










I've already touched base with 3 of my Toronto peeps, so know I'm not alone. Note, there's no free wifi at the hotel (thank you unsecured person - please don't hack me), so updates will be infrequent. For those interested, I will try to do an entry about how I did though. Tonight - pretzels and Diet Coke for dinner. And they have Diet Dr. Pepper for my morning "coffee" so all is well.  Am I ready for tomorrow? No. No I am not.