oh canada

i just got back from a college friends wedding. she's canadian, eh, and the wedding was in kananaskis village, just west of calgary. living in colorado, i sometimes get a little jaded about the beauty of mountains.. but let me tell you, the canadian rockies are breathtakingly gorgeous! they're like the colorado rockies on steroids.

anyhow, the whole weekend was going perfectly until i had to get home. i had flown up there and si drove, so we had my car. we left kananaskis a little late on monday morning and had to haul ass so i could make my 1:30 flight from calgary to edmonton, where i would continue to denver. so i get to the airport at 1:00, and since canada isn't as uptight as the states, the airline lady checked me in and told me that i better hurry. i made it to my flight with a couple minutes to spare and was extremely relieved. i called si and told him he could head home, since i made the flight.

i arrive at edmonton at 2:15, an hour before my 3:15 flight. then i'm informed that because of bad weather in chicago*, my flight has been not delayed, but CANCELLED. ok, not a problem, it's only 2:30, i think to myself, i have plenty of time to get back to denver tonight. so i stand behind about 8 people at the united counter to wait to be rebooked. an hour passes, there are still 6 people in front of me. so i suck it up and call the airline from my cell phone, using the $0.50/minute international rate, and end up talking to perhaps the most unhelpful woman ever. out of frusturation, i hang up on her. by that time, there are only 3 people ahead of me. so i wait ANOTHER 30 minutes before i finally get to rebook. i'm finally told that there are no flights to the united states for that day, and they'll have to send me back to calgary and i can take the 6:50 am flight the next day. WTF? i had a hard time believing that there wasn't a SINGLE flight to the states leaving for the rest of the day.

but i sucked it up, called si, let him know what was going on, and remained completely irritated that instead of spending my extra day in banff with si, i had to spend it flying back and forth between calgary and edmonton!

luckily, my friend and her family and some friends were still in calgary, so i was able to stay the night with them and catch a ride with them to the airport, but still. of course, i didn't have any luggage because i had sent it with si - so i had to sleep in my clothes and borrow a toothbrush. then wake up at 4:30 to go to the airport, get back into town, take a cab home, and head into work ~11am. that makes for a LONG day.

the funny thing is, had i actually missed my first flight, i would have probably gotten on the 3:00 direct flight from calgary to denver!

*bad weather my ass.. whenever there's a flight problem they tell you this so that they don't have to give you hotel/food vouchers.