So the blog's been dormant for a couple days.
Sorry 'bout that.
Here's why...
Thursday last, I had to fly to Calgary to interview Preston Manning, founder of Canada's Reform Party, which today has morphed into our governing party.
For three days previous I'm busting my hump to try and book flights. Impossible. Sure, I can find flights there, but back to Toronto, days before Christmas? No chance.
The interview with Preston is for a special we're shooting Jan 10th called 'Right is Right' that'll explore the impact the 'religious right' has had on the Canadian political scene. The idea is to see if the RR's influence is waxing or waning.
Anyway, Preston will be the key guest.
So, we HAD to get there.
Ended up booking my Director and I there on WestJet direct, first thing in the morning. Our crew flew out from Vancouver to meet us. No worries. The way back though required that I fly my Director, business class, back through Winnipeg to Toronto. I got to fly economy through Chicago to Toronto so that we could save $800. My Director HAD to be back as early as possible to get some last-minute editing done before the Christmas break and the business class flight got him home earlier in the day so we ate the $800 for him 'cause it was one of two available seats. I got the other one, through Chicago.
Anyway...
We're getting ready to shoot the Manning interview. All our gear's ready to go and our DP gets a text from Air Canada on her iPhone saying that if you're planning to fly east Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday you'd better go tonight or else.
And they were going to switch you for free so long as there was space on the planes.
So, we rush out of there, fighting our way through Calgary rush hour (minus 25 degrees outside, roads still snow covered a week after a storm 'cause they don't bother salting the roads when it's that cold outside...) and get to the airport 31 minutes before our flight. Turns out they DID have space.
Karl, my Director, got 3A in business class. I got 21E in steerage, wedged between two dudes. Two dudes who coughed and hacked the whole five hours to Montreal.
Yes, Montreal.
(I was not a happy camper...)
We were supposed to arrive at 11:30pm but, because it was Air Canada (who I've refused to fly for nearly eight years 'cause they suck so bad...) we didn't arrive 'till 1:15am.
Lovely.
We get our luggage, head back up to departures to try and check in for our 5:00am flight to Toronto. Yup, 5:00am. There are three people in front of us waiting to check in. The first person finishes. The attendants pack up and leave.
"Sorry, we don't do 24-hour check in, you'll have to come back at 3:30am..."
Friggin' french people.
That's how I felt, for real.
So instead of the 'comfy' carpets and waiting lounge chairs at the gate we got to wander the concrete wasteland of Trudeau airport for half and hour 'till we found a corner to crash. Tried to sleep for a couple hours. Kept getting woken up by arriving crew and...
Two thousand Quebecers flying to Cuba.
Seriously.
3:00am, we get up, and are surrounded by a howling mass of humanity trying to get checked in for their southbound flights.
We head back to the Air Canada counter. No one's there. Wait a half-hour 'till they arrive to check us in then head to clear security. No-one's there either. We have to wait in line for an hour ('till 4:30am) or face losing our place in line to the Cuban hordes.
4:45am they let us through security. 5:00am we board, but because it's Air Canada, we don't lift off 'till 6:00am and we're supposed to be in Toronto by 6:15am.
You can see where this is going.
We arrive in Toronto, and because it's Air Canada, they can't get the gate to the plane so we hang out for another thirty minutes--or maybe it was the Montreal flight that happened on.
At least they didn't lose my luggage.
(Oh wait, I only had carry-on 'cause damned if I'm THAT stupid. It was eight years ago, but I haven't forgotten...)
By the time I got home I'd been awake and on the road for 30 hours!
Merry Christmas.
But, Chicago is still shut down. If I hadn't endured the 30-hour trip home, I'd likely still be cooling my heels in Chi-town instead of happily ensconced at home with my family and the nearly three feet of snow that's fallen since the morning I got back.
All for Preston.
All for the show.
All for the career.
All for the family.
The SFS point being that sometimes you just gotta' knuckle down and do what you need to do to get the thing done so that you can keep moving forward regardless of how difficult or distasteful that 'thing' is. And that kind of tenacity is almost a requirement if you want to operate at a level that's anything past the mundane. As if 'discomfort' just goes with the territory.
Suck it up Todd. Suck it up.
I did tell my Executive Producer we have to give some serious thought to business class next time though because...
All I could smell was humanity.
T
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