JFK -> YVR

so, i've been lax about posting lately. i think it's that whole post-holiday let-down, when you come back into your "real life". but i got to go away again. so more to tell you about.

i went to vancouver the weekend of the 21-23 septembre for S.B.'s and Y.J.K's wedding. but before i get to the wedding (it was awesome!), let me start off in order.

JFK to YVR, Cathay Pacific Flt. 889, 20.09.07

of course, in order to save scads of money and to minimize travel time, i opted for the less than $400 cathay pacific flight. this flight goes from ny to vancouver and then on to hong kong. this flight is overrun with young-ish couples. who have babies. whiny, wailing, split your nails it kills my brain loud babies. in the economy class where the other plebes, like me, sit, there were 16 babies. 16. and you could feel it. one would start and the others would pipe up like it was some sort of torturous round or something.

the two people beside me (i was the middle seat of 3) were very interesting & easy to chat with: she = a vancouverite; he = a victorian. the glitch was that immediately in front of us, there was a man with a baby. no mom. no breasts to suckle. just a man and a baby. the baby was really freakin' loud. & did not stop crying until we began our descent into vancouver.

oh, did i forget to mention that this flight leaves new york at 11 PM and arrives vancouver at 2 AM.

oh but before i even get on the flight, i had foreshadowing that the trip to vancouver was not going to be as easy-peasy as i had thought.

J.H. had come over for dinner. we then walked up to the subway to catch the A - me in the direction of the airport; he towards manhattan. we part ways at nostrand station. and then spend another 10 minutes talking across the platform until J.H.'s train came. mine followed shortly thereafter.

one or two stops fly by. when i realize that i don't have my passport in my bag. sh*t! i hop off the train at the next possible station, loop back to the franklin avenue shuttle stop on fulton street and then shuttle back to the apartment as fast as the MTA will allow us to move. so my whole "get to JFK for only $7" plan thwarted! had to hustle home, call a car & dash to the airport.

Dash to the airport ... only to wait. There was a delay (of course), the airline needed to load 16 families with small, small children on to the plane, then the elderly, then people with platinum-plus-plus-plus super-elite better than the rest of us cards get to go on. Finally, the rest of us - aka the plebians. The worst part about this ordeal was that all the shops were boarded up. ALL of them. There was Hudson News taunting me with all the magazines & books I couldn't browse. The only place to get food was this one "sit-down" restaurant or McDonald's. I finally buckled to see if McDonald's had hot chocolate (because the terminal was freeeeeezing). Of course they didn't. The order person looked at me like I might be certifiable. Hot chocolate. What a concept.

Alas, finally we board. All of us.

My seat-mates are very cool. A Croatian guy living in Victoria now (we sympathized over his dating prospects, going out options) and a middle-aged-ish woman in Vancouver (we discussed restaurants & neighbourhoods). Lovely people. In front of us however was a demon-child. And a father that even my frozen heart could have sympathy for. he was traveling to hong kong with his baby (who seriously looked small enough to still be in the womb) and he was doing this all by himself. his baby was wailing at 700000 decibles and he seemed clue-less. no doubt, if he could lactate, all would probably have been well. someone really should have pointed out to him that little babies can't eat the food served in-flight.

between the discordant crying from 16 different areas of economy class. apparently people in first class don't (a) have children (that's why they have lots of money) or (b) sedate their children (leading to life-long substance abuse problems) or (c) leave their children at home with a nanny-entourage. unclear.

flight arrives vancouver at around 2:30 am. i call A.K. who had graciously offered to put me up, but also to wake up and let me in at 3:00 am. bless her. i hop into a cab driven by a young asian man, who went to uvic for fine arts and is now saving money from his job to go to film school. he wants to study in the u.s. but doesn't want to start selling organs on the black market to pay for it. so he'll probably stay in vancouver. he was very nice and helped me figure out exactly which house in the darkness that can only be found in cities not new york was A.K.'s. A.K. lives very close to commercial drive. a great location. and a great apartment. and the hospitality -- check plus plus. A.K. lets me into the apartment & leads me to the couch which looks as inviting as a sleepy's mattress warehouse.

sleep.