The Last Month

Back in May, this all started to come together. It's amazing the timing of how the last 3 1/2 weeks have all played out, and it was an incredible month. I thought I would write a post about it to share, if you're interested in my adventures. 

Since 2008, Jack has participated in an English conference for smart people. This year, they decided to hold the conference in south beach. He informed me way back in April, and we were looking forward it. Originally, we were looking forward to going to Universal Studios, but as the time approached, we found new things to do, as well. The conference was planned to be the first weekend of November.

Then, Brenden decided that he wanted to get married the second weekend of November. In Michigan. Ewwww. But hey, it's onepass miles XD and I hadn't seen him since the night we left Scotland. I met his beautiful bride there, too, as well. 

Later in the summer, my friend Caroline informed me that she wanted to go to Virginia to visit her brothers, who were going to be in a play over Halloween. Apparently, they live remarkably close to my friend Jansen, so I thought I would come along, too. We were originally planning on doing a road trip, but a month out, she didn't think she was going to be able to come, so I decided that I wanted to go anyway, and bought a ticket - and then it turned out that the Rally for Sanity was that weekend.

While I was in Seattle over Labor day, my friend and former roommate Steve called to let me know he would be in Orlando the week before, for a conference/certification he was getting for his job. 

So, out of this confusing mess came the following schedule: Oct 21, Steve's in town + Oct 29th, going to DC for Rally + Nov 5, Jack comes into town + Nov 11, Brenden's wedding = busy month. I've posted the pictures for Jack and the wedding here and for the rally, here. 

What I really want to focus on though, is the last 24 hours. I did something as crazy if not more crazy than my 36 hour trip to Brazil, or my weekends to Paris or Manchester. I'm not handling it as well as I used to, either, I'm having a hard time writing well, but I'm trying. 

So the wedding and reception were Saturday, and I booked my flight home today, for cost purposes, and thought, I might as well go on a little adventure. Adventures are always better in one's head than in reality. Like the time we went to Disney world from Pensacola in a 30 hr trip, including a full day at the Magic Kingdom and then driving back the same night. Except, that was in 30 hours with 3 drivers. This was in 18 and with me. Just me. The distance wasn't bad. It was only like 350 miles. That's 100 miles less than to get from Pensacola to Orlando, but it took about as like. I knew it would be about a 6 hour drive. Three to the border, then another three to the city. So knowing that I had to be back at the airport the next day at 8:30am for my flight home, I set off.

The first part of the drive went well. No big deal, really. A friend of mine made quite a few cds for my trip, and so I just listened to those. The real adventure started at the border. My little sister is somewhat obsessed with Canada, so I took some innocent pictures of the border crossing that I was going to send to her (you'll notice there are no such pictures in the album, now). At the border, the Canadian immigration chick asked, 

"Where are you going?" 

I replied, "Toronto. Probably."

"Probably?"

"Yea, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it there, but that's where I want to go." 

"How long will you be there?"

"Just this evening."

"So...you're coming back today?"

"That's the plan." 

"Doesn't sound like you really have much, planned. What do you want to do in Toronto?" 

"I don't know. Look around, see the buildings and stuff....."

"And stuff?" 

"Yea. This is kind of spontaneous." 

"I can tell. Please go over to the immigration office. They need to ask you a few more questions." 

So I drove over to the immigration building, (which I also took a picture of, to document the adventure). And a guy directs me where to park and he asks for the yellow slip of paper the lady handed me. So I passed it to him: 

"Toronto. Probably. Sir, why are you in Canada?" 

"Cause I heard it's nice, here. And I've never been to this part." 

"Where are you from?" 

"Florida."

"Why were you in Michigan?" 

"A wedding." 

"Yours?" 

I laughed at him. He was serious. "No, my friend. We were interns together in Scotland." 

>>>Side note -- the weather is overcast, and the temperature is probably 45 degrees with a sharp wind from the the north<<<

I jam my hands into my pockets to try to keep them warm. 

"Sir, please take your hands out of your pockets, I don't know what you have in there." 

"Ok." Seconds later, I'm trying to shove my hands back into my pockets. 

"Sir. What did I just tell you? Oh, right. Sorry." Awkwardly, I cross my arms, aware that my body language says that I'm hiding something because I'm closed off and not open. He continues to ask me questions about where I'm from and what I'm doing in Canada. With every question, I elaborate more and more and more, until finally, he says, 

"Are you nervous or something? You're talking a lot and you're shaking." 

I replied, "Are you kidding? I'm freezing. I don't have anything to hide. I just wanted to come to your country. And I'm really cold." 

Then he says, "So you took pictures on your phone of the border crossing." 

I think to myself, Hot damn, that's impressive surveillance. "Yea, I did."

"You need to show them to me." So I ask him to get me my phone off the seat of the car (since I'm not allowed to touch the car while it's being searched). I show him the photos and he makes me delete them and watches my hands and phone while I do it, to make sure there's no funny business. 

Soon, another lady comes over, and starts asking me same question. They ask me about the car, about the books I have in bag, ask me if I know what's in the car. I try my hardest not to be a smartass. Finally, they send me inside for a third set of questions. This was the best yet. I wait in line and I hear the officers directing people to pay $50-100 at the cashier off to my left. I think to myself, if they make me pay, I'm going back to the US. This has to be a joke. I'm really beginning to get frustrated now, because all I wanted to do was go spend a few hours in Toronto. Of course, the knew something that I would only too soon come to find out. 

I finally get to talk to the immigration official, and he goes, "Toronto, probably. What does that mean? So I told him the same thing as everyone else."Have you ever been arrested?"

"Nope." 

"When do you have to be back at work?"

"Wednesday. ...Well, I can work from anywhere, so it's not a big deal." 

He says, "working in Canada without permission is against the law!"

"Sorry, let me back up." 

"Please do," his voice was heavily tinged with annoyance. 

So I explained how I can do my research for the nonprofits anywhere I can connect to the internet, so it's not like I'm working for a Canadian organization/company/whatever. He seems appeased. 

"Have you ever been arrested?" 

"Nope." 

"Enjoy your drive." 

So I go outside and hand my yellow slip to a different immigration guy and get in the car and he directs me to go to the left, towards the border. And I was like, whaaaaa? It was only on second glance that I realized it was just poorly designed and it was going to dump me out onto the highway. The rational part of me was thinking, 'wow. I'm glad they care so much about their border'. The frustrated part was saying, But it's Canada! Who effing cares?! No one cares to attack them. 

So I start driving. And I see a sign that says, Toronto, 250. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what have I done? I then realize that it was kilometers. So basically, 60% of that. And I figure it's a little less than the distance from Tallahassee to Pensacola. I take a deep breath and hit the accelerator. ...Until I saw the speed limit sign: 80kph - basically, 55 or 60. YUCK. That was followed shortly by another sign that says if you're caught going 50kph over speed limit, you can be fined $10,000 and your car is seized and impounded. So I drove between 120 and 140kph. 

I was surprised how content most of the cars were to drive slowly. I guess some people think that 100kph is fast; until you've driven faster, then you realize you're wasting time at that speed! So I was doing my best to get to Toronto, and I finally get there about 6pm. So I park, get on the subway and head in to the city, all the while, I'm looking for some trendy little hole in the wall to eat. 

I forgot it was Sunday night. The city was dead. On the subway down, I was thinking, it's early, but I would've sworn it would be busier. As I'm walking around the city, the shops are already closed. This is a good thing, mostly, since I really didn't want to buy anything - I was dreading my encounter that would eventually happen with US Customs. If Canada was this harsh, I can only imagine US Customs. 

All of the trendy spots were either out of my budget, or closed. So after wandering around for four hours, I finally figured out my directions and where things were, and the city began to be familiar to me. I decided that I should start heading back, because I now realized what all the Canadian officials though i knew - it was a bloody long drive and didn't make any sense to do it for an evening (unless you really didn't have anything else to do). 

On my way out of town, I drove past several apartment buildings, that look remarkably similar to my interpretation of them, on my colored pages of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Volume 1. I decided that it might be a good idea to tell the US customs people that I was here researching for my coloring hobby. 

So it was 11 and I started driving. My eyes were getting really, really heavy. This was not good. All I wanted to do was get a hotel room and sleep in a bed. Nothing could be worse than the Motel 6 Jack and I stayed in early last week. It was Canada. It was supposed to be nice. I was an hour outside the city and found a service plaza. I pulled in, set my alarm for 2, (this was the time I absolutely had to leave in order to get to the airport on time) and put my seat back. 

Two hours later I woke up. I didn't feel like I had been sleeping. My mind had been racing. It only felt like my eyes were closed five or ten minutes. I felt a lot better. My vision was blurry, but my eyes weren't the least bit heavy. The blurriness eventually went away. When I stopped for gas around 2:30, I bought a five hour energy. Then I figured out that the car had satellite radio! I was ecstatic! 200+ channels of nothing to listen to! I listend to the NFL recap for a while, then I listend to a preview of an audio book, then I would surf til I found a song I liked, listened to it, then moved on if the next one was crappy. 

It kept me awake though. Pretty soon I arrived at the border. I was so excited. I was halfway there. The drive thus far hadn't been bad, because I was only passing cars every 15 minutes, and I was, of course, passing them. Otherwise, it wasn't very stressful because I didn't feel the need to be completely constrained by the white lines. 

At the border, it was the same drill. When did you arrive? (Earlier today). What were you doing in Canada? (I walked around downtown Toronto for a while) Where'd you go? (Well, I walked around downtown Yonge St and the fashion district and the entertainment district on Kings and Queens Sts).  Did you buy anything? (food) Alcohol? (Nope). Drugs? (Not me, no ma'am). Then what did you do? (I walked around downtown). Really? (Yes.) 

"Where'd you get the car?" -- It's a rental. 

"Why were you in Michigan?" A wedding. Blah blah blah. It was all the same. I was looking ahead to see if they had the same sort of set up the Canadians did with the building and all (we don't).

"Please turn off the car, hand me the keys and pop the trunk." 

Done, done and done. I hear her unzip my bag in the trunk opens the door behind me and pats it down. I guess she was looking for loose panels to indicate smuggling. I feel like an old pro at this now, plus she let me stay in the car, so I was a lot warmer! 

So after all this, she says "have a good night". Then locks herself in her little booth. I start up the car and drive off. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. At almost exactly 4am the highway got busy again. It was frustrating, but not so frustrating that I had to cut my speed. The car I rented (A Dodge Challenger) has amayzing acceleration. I went back the way I came - Flint...Lansing...Transfer to the 96 from the 69...Next stop, Grand Rapids. I got to the airport about 5:30, said a prayer thanking the Lord for getting me there safely despite my stupidity, set my alarm, put my chair back and fell asleep for 2.5 hours.