National Lampoon’s Trip to San Fran

I booked a weekend in San Francisco back in December so that I could attend a course offered by the Center for Right Relationship.  The course I was taking was going to be huge for my coaching practice, and as it was only offered in North America in January or September, I wanted to jump on it sooner than later.

I booked my holidays accordingly and found a few swanky hotel deals to make it a bit of celebration weekend for myself – things have been going well; certification is over, I would have been living on my own for almost a year, etc etc.  I was really looking forward to my getaway as well as the course itself, but Alaska Airlines had other plans…

I was to fly out Thursday morning and as I was leaving from Bellingham (I got a return trip for $250!), and we had been getting a lot of snow, I left my house at 3:20 am to get across the border and fly out.  I arrived at the airport and was told my flight to Seattle was cancelled – mechanical problems.  Apparently I have a viable case to get a refund for that leg of the trip.  I was told to jump on a shuttle to get to Seattle, and although that airport was completely shut down at that point due to weather, the people in Bellingham were (somehow) optimistic that it would reopen later in the morning and it would be fine.

I forked out some cash for a delightful shuttle ride; the bus got fuller and fuller and hotter and hotter as we stopped at every casino, hotel and outhouse on the way to Seattle (it seemed). I spend the majority of the ride next to a guy who was on hold on the his cell with Alaska Airlines and told his tale of woe to every single person who had ears on the bus as he did so.  The only thing missing from that ride was crates of chickens.  By the end of it, I was shouting inside my head “LET ME OFF THIS THING!”

We finally arrived at Sea-Tac and it was super pleasing to see that there was a 3km line weaving all around the airport of people trying to get re-booked on upcoming flights after learning theirs had been cancelled.  I had received a text and a phone call during the shuttle ride telling my that my flight was not leaving, but that I was automatically booked on a flight for 6:30 the following morning.  Rather than wait and wait and wait, I opted to have friends book me a room in a time-share thing they have (thanks K!) and grabbed a cab into the city.  I had been up far too long and was getting tired, but I wandered the snowy streets, killing time, until my room was ready late in the afternoon.  Not a super fun day, but I did pick up Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and camped out in a coffee shop for a couple of hours.

I finally got into the room and ordered some food, watched season 1 of Nurse Jackie (LOVE), and then collapsed for the night.  I had a cab coming at 4:30am to take me back to the airport…

I woke up Friday looking a fright: papery pale, pisshole eyes, and a sluggish body that was wondering what I was doing to it.  $50 later, I arrived at the airport again to find out that my flight had been cancelled (again), and that I had been rebooked (again).  Problem is, the rebooking was for a flight on SUNDAY morning at 7:30 – problem is, I needed to be in San Fran for my course that would begin SATURDAY.  How helpful of them to get me there a day before I would fly back!  Shouldn’t an airline with the word ALASKA in its name know how to fly in SNOW???

I spent the next couple of hours visiting every airline in the airport trying to get a flight out, and the only option I found was a flight Saturday morning at 6am – there was one seat left for $200.  I weighed going back to the city, killing another day, renting another room, handing over more money to my lovely cab-drive Tom (total sweetheart!) and opted to take some control: I decided to rent a car and get there myself.  I learned to drive in the snow, so I wasn’t worried about that, and I just wanted to GET THERE.

I rented a Buick Lucerne (the Crowne Victoria they gave me originally was old and dumb, and even with the (bench) seat pulled all the way up, I would have been driving on tiptoes all day and decided I was not going to be doing that) and it was quite nice and felt very solid.  I also made sure I had a GPS, and that thing saved me a hundred times as I navigated epic, Biblical rain all day…

So then I drove, and drove, and drove.  With minimal stops to wake myself up and grab giant coffees, I made it in 16 hours.

I dropped the car at the airport, and caught the BART.  Years ago, before Man and I had any money to even speak of (and even after we did), we would have big Date Nights at the Roxy Theatre in Victoria.  On Saturdays, they offered three movies for $5 and they had the best popcorn in the world.  The Roxy is actually an old porn theatre, complete with double seats that make you not want to think too much about what’s happened on them.  I bring this up because the BART was just as disgusting.  It had soiled and yucky seats, and IT HAD CARPET.   Just think about that for a minute.

I got off the BART, and it must have been close to midnight at that point.  I went to go above ground and wouldn’t you know, the escalator was broken.  I humped my 42 pound suitcase up THREE FLIGHTS of stairs.  Little had I known I wasn’t going to need 40% of what I packed and could easily have left it all at home…

I stepped out into Union Square and proceeded the 3 blocks to my hotel – The Westin St Francis (thanks for F&F rate, Sarah!) and twitched in line behind 5 other people and the Cashersons (they didn’t want the room put on their credit card, and instead counted out the cost in cash – in singles and 5′s, it would seem) – I had been awake for about 20 hours at that point, was utterly drenched from the rain, and all I could think about was breaking into the bottle of 7 Deadly Zins I had picked up back in Redding, CA.

The rest of the night goes this way: room service was running about an hour so I opted to just eat some food from my car trip, I got a leelte bit drunk and texted people at random about how much I loved them, I briefly considered eating a chocolate bar from the mini-bar but decided not to when I found it was $7.50, I ordered room service breakfast, I collapsed in a slightly drunk (ok, a lot) heap and slept.  I was in the room a total of 8 hours.

In the morning, I ventured out for coffee and wifi so I could let people know I was alive and not still on the road somewhere, ate the (very salty) breakfast that was delivered, and caught a cab to Corte Madera.  I saw a little of the city during the 30 minute drive to my course.

The course was super, although I would have liked to get more from it, but I do understand they want me to sign up for the rest of them.  I am QUITE schooled out at this point, so that will have to wait.  I chose that day to put my contacts in, and by noon, my left eye was having a vicious allergic reaction to the (brand new) lens.  By 6pm I looked like I had been shooting heroine all day.  I took out the lens, grabbed dinner and camped out in my room.  I had a coaching call to do for homework (thanks Lori and Clay!) at 8pm.  The call ended at 8:30 and by 8:38 I am fairly certain I was asleep.

My eye did not do well overnight; it watered and weeped and I woke up with it glued shut.  I went to Starbucks for a coffee, and someone asked me if I had been in a fight.  Awesome.  I spent the day flinching from the pain and wiping tears as they dripped down my face.

I ended the day at a lovely boutique hotel (The Diva) and picked up (completely flavourless) Thai food.  I fell asleep watching The Help on my iPad…

I had a few hours to relax the following morning; I was flying out in the afternoon and could leave my giant suitcase at the hotel.  I did a bit of shopping, shot some photos (below) and then headed, you guessed it, back to the airport.  I was going to get there nice and early just in case.

The agent at the counter informed me that because I had missed my flight on Sunday morning at 7:30 that the entire rest of my trip had been cancelled.  Super.  I told her a little about my trip down and she quite helpfully re-booked the rest of my trip and made it as direct as she could.  Wanting to get some work done, I cruised through security (you know, why don’t we just cut the shit and make everyone go through naked? You have to remove your belt, shoes and who-knows-what-else, wouldn’t it be easier to have us all in those white hazmat suits to clear the gate???) and settled in next to an outlet.

Then there was an announcement.  Oh, yes.  My flight had been cancelled.

I went BACK out of the secure area and then waited, I have no idea…2 hours?…for a shuttle to Oakland.  The bright spot was meeting Lynn – the nicest dude in the world from Seattle who drives a scooter and plays drums in a band – we spent the day together and he made it quite bearable (thanks Lynn!)  From there, I am happy to report it was quite uneventful.  I finally stepped on a plane in Oakland and arrived in Bellingham just before midnight.  Because my giant bag had been tagged WAAY before I flew anywhere, I really had no idea where it was even going, but I was eternally thankful that the comedy of errors did not extent to my luggage; it was waiting for me in Bellingham.  I grabbed a bottle of wine, filled Molly with gas, and arrived home to a very happy basset hound around 1am.  We had a cuddle sleepover.

Here’s what I learnt:

• I overpack – I could have brought a third of what I did and will do so next time.  Workout gear?  Who needs it?  As my friend Kirstin said last night: “Screw workout stuff.  If you want to work out, do it in your room, naked.”  Good plan, indeed.
• You have to laugh, otherwise you’ll cry
• There’s a Dr. Suess exhibit at some gallery in San Fran (I heard all about it on the radio in the car)
• I could have paid just a little more, flown out of YVR and arrived the same day I left.  You do indeed get what you pay for.
  

  Glorious weather in downtown Seattle

  

  Hmmmm.

  

  Westin Breakfast

  

  Diva Hotel

  

  Ahhhh...love The Diva

  

Because I am LOUD

You’ll remember I gathered up myself and Baxi and headed to Victoria on the ferry over Christmas weekend.  When we paid to ride the magical boat, I was accidentally charged for 2 PEOPLE and my car (why my car is charged separately than I am will always irk me – as far as I know, my car is not able to ride the ferry without me), but I digress.  I didn’t notice this until later in the weekend when I was looking over my pile of receipts in my wallet. 

When I returned to the Victoria terminal to come back to Vancouver on Boxing Day, I enquired about the overcharge and the pretty young thing in the booth told me to visit the admin office, get a form and send it in – no problem.  I did that, and today, when I checked the mail and found an envelope from BC Ferries, I expected a cheque for $14.25.

I normally wouldn’t have even bothered to ask for the refund, but as this is BC Ferries and I have forked over more money to them in my lifetime than I care to recall, I thought if it was so easy, I would.  I was wrong.

In the envelope today was a polite letter thanking me for my request, but that they “regret that they are not able to approve my refund request, as disputes of this type must be resolved at the departing terminal at time of travel, when the passenger count may be verified…”

Ahem. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, BC Ferries?

I had something to say about this:

Dear Kathryn:

 Re: Refund Request

 I have been a passenger on BC Ferries since I first moved to Vancouver Island in 1994; I have since returned to live on the Mainland, but on average, I ride the ferry an average of twice per month to the Sunshine Coast, the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island.  The only exception to this is the fall of 2002, when I rode between Vancouver and Victoria 47 times in 6 weeks as I tended to my dying mother-in-law.  My point in saying this is that not only am I what I would consider a frequent and perhaps even valued customer (I often drive onto the ferry, eat on board, and even frequent the gift shop), but I also don’t tend to balk at the ridiculous amounts of money that BC Ferries charges me for the pleasure of my passage.

 On December 23, 2012, when I drove through the payment booth, and was overcharged for the occupants of my car (it was myself and my dog and I was charged for 2 people), I took my receipt and was perhaps focused on getting my dog out for a stretch before boarding and grabbing a coffee after my frantic morning wrapping up my work for the holidays, rather than scrutinizing my receipt. 

 You suggest that I should have taken this up at my departing terminal, and my failure to notice is clearly my error, but I do wonder what you would have had me do had I noticed it there?  Should I have parked my car in lane 35 and hiked back to the payment booth to ask for a refund, interrupting another passenger’s transaction in the process?  I think that would have been dangerous to do.  Perhaps I was to visit the administration office, but in all honesty, in 16 years of riding the ferry, I had never encountered such a problem, and it might not have even occurred me to do so.

When I realized before my return to Vancouver that I had been overcharged, I asked at the booth when I was paying to return to Vancouver, and was directed to the administration office, where I was gleefully told, “No problem!  Just send this form and we’ll issue a refund to you!”  I left feeling optimistic and appreciative of the great service.  Then I received your letter.

I enjoyed a long career in marketing and public relations, before starting my own company, and I have certainly paid my dues in customer service along the way.  You know what I think is a universal truth?  That the customer is always right.  In the grand scheme of welcoming what was likely thousands of cars and passengers on your vessels that day, you can’t seem to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, I am telling the truth to you and that I deserve the benefit of the doubt.  I can assure you that I am not someone who visits a restaurant and ever sends my food back, I don’t return clothing I’ve worn, if I am given too much change, I point it out.  I tend to believe it all just seems to come out in the wash; I am not someone who complains, but this situation has compelled me to respond to you. 

It would seem to me, that despite constant increases in fees, BC Ferries needs my $14.25 more than I do, and you are welcome to it.  I just want to acknowledge that the principle of this situation has left me extremely displeased, and I am not, by nature, very quiet.

Like many residents, I don’t have a lot of choice but to travel on BC Ferries; the amount of traveling I do makes it just too expensive for me to fly, and as a dog owner, I am also limited when my dog is with me.  However, please know that if I had more choices, I would certainly exercise them.

 Thank you for your letter; I now know that in future, I am to carefully watch what your staff does so that I am not left hoping that you’ll treat me as a valued customer in the event of a discrepancy.

 

Kind regards,

 Tara Caffelle

 ***

The next story will be the epic adventure that took me to San Francisco this past weekend.  At least it’s all good blogging material, right?

 

 

 

Happy New Year Meme

I’ve done this sort of post before here, and here, and it was originally copied from Linda and then this year, I was also inspired by AndreAnna, so here we go again…I’m frankly just thankful for material to write!

Happy New year to everyone….I know for sure that 2012 is going to ROCK.

_____

 

What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

Hm.  Finished coaching certification, wrangled my life and 7 clients while working full-time, settled myself and a dog into a whole new life, finished the year debt-free, flew a plane, bought a bottle of rum (seriously, I had never purchased one in my whole life), bought grown-up wintery tires for my car, and visited Montana and Idaho.

Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

This is what I wanted to do:

• eat primally, lift some weights, walk lots.  Drop some more pounds.  I did the EXACT opposite of this and for that I would like a medal.
• travel as planned – Done.  I got to Montana and points beyond.
• write Done
• find places to wear my bikini  Done.  And I also found places to take it off..heh heh
• live with purpose, keep looking for balance  I think I did pretty well at this.
• find happy and triumphant moments  Done.
• get divorced  Almost…we’re officially filing in January, mostly because the mediation lawyer was so so darn BUSY.  How sad is THAT?
• date  Le sigh.  Done.
• drink wine  Check.
• watch “Love, Actually” WITH Monica  DONE, twice I think…
• kayak  Done.  And I even fell out of one.  Good times.
• hike  Around my neighborhood, yes.  I think that counts.
• don’t ever behave to make Baxi hide again.  Sorry, little Buddy.  CHECK.  He’s had a very happy year, despite how miserable he likes to make people think that he is.
• get regular oil changes on car  Done!
• get regular pedicures  Done. I got two this year, and each lasted several months, so I think that counts.
• enjoy frequent puppy joy  Oh, done,  done and did.

My goals and plans for 2012:

Lose some weight. Again.  Exercise.  Realize that running is not the only form of activity that I can do.  Follow the joy.  Live big and Play Big and rest before I have to.  Get through my 37th year list (which begins in February), don’t hold back until I meet someone – jump into life now.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Lori, Nina, Saskia, Julie…I think that was all?

Did anyone close to you die?

Yes.   My dear friend Jessica passed very suddenly in September, and she was very young and vibrant and amazing to all of us.   I miss her every minute.  I also just heard that two women I knew when I lived in Smithers (one of whom I considered to be a friend) were killed in a car accident earlier this week.  I am done with people dying this year.

What countries did you visit?

Only the US,  but I did manage several states: Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming.

What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

A slower paced life, more purpose to my work and play.  More naps and the stopping-of-time bliss that goes along with them.  Perhaps sharing my life with someone new who isn’t a complete drip.  Self-control around cheese.  More tubbas in big bathtubs.  Solitude in the wild.

What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory and why?

January 29th (Freedom Day), November 23rd (dear friends Wren and Kristen moved away), November 30th (certification ended!), December 23-26 (my completely relaxing Christmas holiday with Baxi)

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Settling into a completely new life all on my own and all that it entailed (all the solo “firsts” I got through).

What was your biggest failure?

I think it was letting my health and fitness fall off and then be run over, again and again, by a cheese truck.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

My knee….it’s still not better from the marathon and I am now looking at physiotherapy

What was the best thing you bought?

I quite like my iPad and my bike.

Where did most of your money go?

Certification and supporting all the time that took (dog care, takeout, etc etc)

What did you get really excited about?

I remember soaking in my giant bathtub in the hotel on December 23rd and tearing up because I couldn’t possibly imagine being any happier than I was in that moment.

I also squeal whenever a package is delivered for me, or Baxi manages to get from the car into the house off-leash.  I think I may actually be a 5 year-old.

What song will always remind you of 2012?

I had a few theme songs for the year:  Adele – Set Fire to the Rain and Rolling in the Deep; Katy Perry – Firework; Christina Perri – Jar of Hearts; Usher (etc) – Without You

Are you?

Happier or sadder?  Much, much happier.

Thinner or fatter?  Much, much fatter.  And as much as I mention it, I still am quite smitten with myself, I’m just a little sorry that I let it happen (sorry, body, I’ll start taking care of you again soon)

Richer or poorer?  About the same, I think.

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Gotten outside.  Rested big. 

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Watching shitty re-runs.

How did you spend Christmas?

In Victoria with Baxter; we stayed in a cozy B&B.  I visited with friends whom I have known no less than 14 years.

What were your favorite books of the year?

I guess it would be the only books I read this year: The Girls with the Burning Tattoo of the Hornet Series (or whatever it was called)

What were your favorite films of the year?

I don’t remember.  Bridesmaids?

What did you do for your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 36 and I think I spent it with the Child-Hating, Costume-Wearing Dolt I was dating at the time.  Let’s hope my 37th is a little more memorable.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Spending more time where my cell phone doesn’t work.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

“Sweats are sexy” and tights and tunic are the new jeans.

What kept you sane?

Wine, Baxter, friends, and my giant bed.

What is a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011?

Spending more than $10 on a bottle of wine is always worth it.  I ALWAYS smell like a certain aromatherapy company store I work for.  Baxter loves me more than anything else in the whole world (even food).   Buying grown-up tires is worth the peace of mind.  I am stronger than I think and I relearn this every single year.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

Mine.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Kardashians.  Who the fuck cares about these people???  How is it that people are famous just for having money?   Also, our delightful Premier and Prime Minister.  And what’s with his HAIR, anyway?

Did you fall in love in 2011?

Yes. And also out.

What was your favorite TV program?
Big Bang Theory, Up All Night, Dexter, United States of Tara 

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Nope, no one new, just the same Yoga Trollop as I did last year.  I don’t hate, as a general rule, but I make an exception here.

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Every year this questions seems more and more ridiculous to me.  So I will not answer it.

What did you want and get?

A new lease on life.

What did you want and not get?

I can’t think of a single thing…except my new website, but that is coming…

Who did you miss?

Wren and Kristen, Jessica, my family. 

Who was the best new person you met?

I met a lot of new people this year and they’re all my favourites.  And no, I am not just saying that.