Monthly Archives: October 2012

Montreal Take Two: Finalement!

23 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in It's not always so bad

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Trip type: Personal

Airline: Delta

Route: MSP-YUL

After all the excitement of attempt #1, we were a little anxious about getting ourselves back to the airport the next day. We left very early and the driving went smoothly (we even got a front row spot in the Gold ramp) and E was able to slowly make it through security without turning his neck aggressively.

Soon enough, we found ourselves in the Delta lounge, and in the proximity of a threesome of travel-uppers.  You know, those annoying people that have to one-up everyone around them with their exotic destinations/travel disasters/near-death experiences. It is excruciating–especially when you’re their audience.

“I am SO jet-lagged from that leg we just did from Hong Kong!”

“I know–it’s almost as bad as that flight when we went to Machu Picchu.”

“Where are we going after this trip? I wouldn’t mind going back to South Africa.”

“I’ve been there twice now…what about southern Vietnam? I hear the beaches are terrific.”

Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal in Old Montreal

And this went on and on. And on. I could almost feel how badly they wanted my attention. It was like watching a really horrible community theater production where the actors are begging you to like them.

I have to say though, having the travel-upper troupe as our biggest aggravation was a welcome respite after the previous day’s shenanigans. And, finalement (as I would say if I were a real Québécoise) we were in Montreal!

It was my first visit to Montreal and the city was everything I hoped it would be–great food, lovely people, a familiar dialect (eh). Plus, we had a lovely time seeing E’s family and celebrating a great wedding (gotta appreciate a family with a love of hitting the dance floor).

Updates from previous post:

  1. E is feeling much better, thank you for asking (seriously–I was overwhelmed by the nice comments and offers of help). He will likely need some treatment still, but we are hopeful for a full recovery.

  2. There was a lot of whining, but she’s embracing the harness.

    Realizing what a disaster the accident could have been if Bella was with us, we purchased a car harness for her while waiting in the Abbott emergency room (no joke–from E’s phone). She doesn’t really love it but is a good sport.

  3. The car was deemed a total loss. Honestly, I think this is for the best. It’s sad that we just bought it in June and now it’s gone, but I’d rather drive something that didn’t need 25+ new parts. And, you know, started. Next car purchase under negotiation.

Montreal Take One: The trip that almost wasn’t

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in Not Even On a Plane

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Trip type: Personal

Airline: Delta

Route: MSP-YUL

A funny awful thing happened on our way to the airport last week…we never got there.

Thursday afternoon we were en route to the airport from downtown Minneapolis when we came to a dead stop at the 35W/62E split (this color is more interesting if you’re familiar with the Minneapolis highway system. If you’re not, just imagine a newly overhauled highway bypass where an interstate splits from an over-burdened highway and the sight lines are almost nonexistent).

Stopped in the airport exit lane, I glanced in the passenger rear view mirror just in time to see a cab coming full speed into the back of our car.

I don’t remember a lot of what happened next but apparently I uttered, “Oh god” and then the cab was in our trunk and we were ramming into the SUV in front of us. E absorbed the brunt of the impact as we were mostly hit on the driver’s side but despite this, he lived up to his Intrepid E moniker and used the burst of adrenaline to ignore his injuries and take hold of the situation. He asked me if I was ok, called an ambulance, and got us out of the car before calling our insurance agent’s office from the 62 shoulder abutting 35W.

Two Ginsburgs, one hospital bed: awaiting x-ray results

There is an airline story in here, promise. You know that whole “when you can’t control something, control anything” saying? That was me in the back of the ambulance. Right after my vitals were cleared by the EMTs, I got Delta on the phone. After explaining the situation and the fact that I was in an ambulance headed for the emergency room, the Delta agent not only confirmed us for the next direct flight to Montreal, she expedited it within minutes, told me there would be no charges whatsoever, and said she’d get me off the phone and send an email confirmation momentarily (for the record: I had the confirmation by the time we were out of Triage. Impressive.).

I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow of the 5+ hours we spent at the Abbott Emergency Room. E ended up with the worst injuries because he turned to look at me at the last second (verified by the X-ray attending) which resulted in a sprained neck, among other tedious injuries to his shoulder and back. We’re hopeful he’ll make a full recovery in time.

Thanks to the comforts of modern medicine, we did make our rescheduled flight the following evening. More on that to come. For now, our sincere gratitude to the MN State Troopers and incredible EMTs. Not my favorite trip but certainly one of the more memorable.

A Lesson in Patience

07 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by in Seatmate Shenanigans, With love from the Tarmac

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Trip type: Business

Airline: Delta

Route: MSP-PHX

In case we haven’t already established it, I am short on patience. (And if you’re hoping from the title that I actually learned a lesson in the virtue of patience, you may be disappointed.) My recent flight to Phoenix for a work conference only confirmed that I should probably have my blood pressure checked.

At any rate. The ways my patience was tried–let me count the ways…

  1. No room at the inn. It’s happened to friends of mine, but I’ve never experienced the hell that is driving up to Terminal 1 and finding that all the ramps are full. FULL. Arg. Thank goodness I always go to the airport two hours early so that I had time to drive to Humphrey and then light rail it over.
  2. “Do I have to take my shoes off?” Security is definitely a place where you need to take a deep breath and tune out the idiocy surrounding you. That is, unless you’re in the PreCheck lane. I don’t think it’s inappropriate to expect more from PreCheck compatriots so imagine my annoyance when the woman in front of me clearly did not understand that she was in the fast lane. “Do I have to take my shoes off?” No. “Should I take out my laptop?” No. “Oh [after the metal detector goes off], but I need to take my belt off?” FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. The TSA agent did apologize to me for the delay (of 48 seconds) so that was appreciated anyway.
  3. A man of the book. That was how the guy across the aisle introduced himself when I asked what he did. How do I always attract these people? And why do I insist on talking to them?
  4. The classiest man on earth. My seat mate (with the middle seat) showed up with a sack of Chik-fil-a which gave me instant nausea just thinking about the stale french fry smell that was soon to encompass me. He made snide commentary during the entire safety film and pilot’s announcements. And then he fell asleep. As he was already protruding from his seat onto mine, it was only a matter of time until his arm started drifting over the armrest he had claimed and into my seat. After several attempts to politely jostle him, I finally just shoved his arm back onto him. But we weren’t done yet…as his sleep deepened, he began to snore and then to ever so slightly fall over onto me. Unfortunately for him, when this happened I was totally ensconced in my work and jumped, effectively scaring the crap out of both of us. (Don’t worry, he easily fell back to sleep and we got to repeat the process.)
  5. The Parisians are coming. Boarding seemed to go incredibly smoothly, which should have been my first clue that something was about to go wrong. The reason for the smoothness, it turned out, was that half our plane was coming from a delayed connection from France. Thirty minutes after we should have departed, the French arrived. Because I’m such a Francophile, I’m usually the first to defend them…but not this time. The lot of them seemed to have no idea that they’d been on a late flight and lallygagged their way onto the plane. Finally all aboard (and after telling one woman, in French, that no, she could not just sit in the seat beside me because it was vacant (my classy seat mate was in the restroom)), I was ready to roll…alas, we still had to wait for the French luggage. An hour after we should have departed…we finally did. Patience: officially tried.
Inc. 500 | 5000 Awards Conference

With the editor-in-chief of Inc. Magazine accepting the Inc. 5000 award

Luckily, everything was much better once I made it to Arizona (well, once I located the taxi stand. Not big on any extra signage in the basement of the airport). I spent my days going between the ice-cold conference rooms and the sweltering 100 degree oven that is Phoenix.

Then, E flew down Friday once his conference in L.A. wrapped up to escort me to the award ceremony of the Inc. 500 | 5000 conference (where I picked up my company’s hardware, see right) and we spent the following day exploring Sedona. All in all, a great getaway to the southwest.

I’m sure it’s been unbearable without my frequent updates so get excited–my next trip is Thursday as we are off to Canada for a family wedding. Hopefully my patience will not be further tried.

Sedona, Arizona

Lovely Sedona