Have you noticed winter kicks my ass much? As soon as the temperature drops, my brain seems to freeze along with the pipes, and it becomes a struggle just to roll my unmotivated and generally winter-blah’d self off the futon first thing in the morning. It’s dark when I get up, it’s dark when I get off work; it’s cold, slushy, and all around miserable. Fuck winter, man. Fuck it.
The only good thing about winter so far was that I flew south to spend Christmas with Josh. Unfortunately, that merriment ended as soon as my return flight touched down in Buffalo – in the middle of a blizzard. But wait, it gets better.
One delayed hour on the frozen tarmac later, I shoved my way past throngs of snowbirding elderly (who should NOT be allowed to travel with ‘carry-ons’ they can’t lift out of the overhead compartments without assistance), ELEVEN people blocking the aisles waiting for wheelchairs, three screaming toddlers and a fat guy with a cat. My luggage took even longer. I was also starving, having only brought ten dollars for travel-food without realizing that a 9am airport breakfast of yogurt and O.J. would cost eight bucks (you’d think I’d have this figured out by now, it being my third trip), or that all the delays would bring me well past 4pm before I could get to a bank machine. Said bank machine promptly rejected my card. Turns out the last machine I had used before my vacation was of the sketchy variety, and my card had been frozen as protection against card copying fraud. In retrospect, I’m quite grateful – but try telling that to me when I’m starving, tired, and pissed.
Good thing my mom was there to pick me up, or I might have kicked something and broken toes again. She had agreed to drive me to/from Buffalo since it’s loads cheaper to fly within the U.S. than across the Can-Am border. It’s also not that long of a drive, and we’ve got fun family along the way, so she was happy to oblige. She’s also got better luck with technology – her bank card worked just fine, so off we left with a few extra bucks and the intent of stopping for a quick bite to eat before hitting the border.
And then we got outside. Ohhhh, the outside.
I’m not going to describe the outside. But it looked something like this:
got snow?
And sounded something like this:
What exit do we take? Nine, nine, the map says nine. Yeah, but where is nine? I don’t know, I can hardly see anything! Oh my god, it’s getting worse! This isn’t safe, we need to pull over! I can’t see the road! There is no over to pull to! Just watch the signs, can you see them!? I’ll lean my head out the window – ack, blargh, spit, cough! – I think that’s exit…three! Exit three! So we still have…crap, a long ass way to go. Shit, this is a total white out, I can’t even see the car in front of me! From now on trips to Buffalo are only for good weather! This is so not safe, this is SO! NOT! SAFE! I think that’s a truck up there, careful. Is that a truck? I think that’s a truck. Oh fuck, that’s a truck! It’s on it’s side, it’s flipped! Swerve, swerve!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!
Soooo, yeah. That sucked. By the time I got home and into bed I was already counting down until my next vacation.
On the plus side, Southwest Airlines gave me a spiffy credit for the whole ordeal, enough to cover a flight! Totally worth the hassle, I’d say, especially since within-US flights not around Christmas are pretty reasonably priced, so as soon as I’ve got time saved up at work again I’m getting my ass back on a plane.
In the meantime, here’s some highlights from the holidays:
Lovin' up on my man.
Josh being manly with his tools. Haha. Tools.
The dogs were less than thrilled with the decision to reno out the carpeting.
New wood floors are confusing!
Visiting rad friends in their rad kitchen
Not our puppy 😦
My dad sent a Leafs jersey down as a Christmas gift - woot!
Josh took me out to choose a scrapbook for our photos...
...and even helped me put it together!
I got us matching paw-holding otter shirts! (Which other than this one photo op, will not be worn simultaneously - because there's cute and then there's revolting.)
What’s the deal with the otter shirts? I saw them on icanhascheezburger as a shirt-of-the-day just before I left Toronto and HAD to have them. So I bought them on the spot and had them shipped down to us to arrive just before Christmas as a surprise! Why otters? Because Josh had sent me this video a while earlier to make me smile:
800 Miles 
Ginny said,
January 26, 2010 at 4:09 am
Travel is clearly not for you. One of you just needs to move, already 😉
(You very nearly make me want to scrap-book, something I swore I’d never do. )
I keep thinking that I’m all awesome and cosmopolitan with the frequent travelling, being able to navigate airports, and nonchalantly sucking back bottles of Bud in Buffalo. Turns out Buffalo had plans to put me in my place. 😦
Scrapbooking is all about what you’re scrapbooking. Vacation photos? Cute, and a little more personal than uploading them to facebook. Kittens? A little whacked. Unless you’re single or the cats are deformed – then you’re certifiable 😉
duffboy said,
January 26, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I missed your bloggy ways, Em! Please, don’t go MIA again. The scrapbooks are a must. Duffgirl and I don’t even have a wedding album (since that night was super stressful, honeymoon was time for photos). So great to see that you and Josh keep making the effort and putting in the 800 miles to keep it real. Hugs!
Dude, I’m still so psyched that you and Duffgirl got married! And yeah, I tend to blog less in the winter – not because I’m doing anything, but because anything at all just requires assloads of motivation. I’ll try 😉
Peter Parkour said,
January 28, 2010 at 7:55 am
Shoot for warm weather travel next time for sure. You just have the worst luck traveling be it bus or pane. Have you tried train yet? 😕
I don’t know if there are any trains that go down that way, but believe me I’ve thought of it! 😛 Although, except for the weather, flying has been pretty good to me – at least compared to that horrid first bus ride. I’ll chalk this one up to Christmas travelling madness and stick to off-season trips from now on!
David said,
January 30, 2010 at 4:07 am
Damn Emerald, you sure write a good post. Sorry your travels were so fraught, but your album of snapshots looks like you had a nice time down south, so yay. That otter vid was so cute I nearly puked. 🙂
It is a tad puke-inducing, yes 😛 But he sent it to me, so that’s a bit more manly than if it were the other way around. And my trip was fab, aside from the weather of course. Stupid weather.
Grumpy said,
February 4, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Puppies, otters, cute t-shirts and scrapbook def make up for crappy ol’ snow and traveling 🙂
I sure think so! I just wish I’d checked the weather ahead of time, and maybe I’d have made it a pair of cute sweaters instead of t-shirts. Damn but that was a cold trip back!
Jen512 said,
February 6, 2010 at 7:31 am
Aww, glad you got to spend the holidays with your honey 😉 ! Looks like you guys had fun.
Travelling over the holidays is always way more of a to-do than any other time, but it was worth it!
lifeunderacarolinamoon said,
February 8, 2010 at 2:23 am
Glad you lived through your ordeal! Told you you need to move on down here to NC! Sooner rather than later!!
I know, I know, I need to get down there! Stupid economy…
Will said,
February 21, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I’ve been away for a while. So…are you and Josh married yet?