I lived the sequel to Planes, Trains and Automobiles today. Incidentally, PT&A is one of my favorite movies, but not something I want to try to experience in real life. I had no choice today though. I woke up at 7 so I could catch my 8:45 flight to Hamilton and get a good start on a pretty full day of stuff at home. I had to wait for Tan to drive me to the airport though, since he was also flying today. The problem is that his flight was 15 minutes later than mine, and we didn’t leave enough time to get to the airport. By the time I got there at 8:15, my flight was closed. The woman at the counter tried twice to convince the crew at the gate to reopen the flight so I could get on–it wouldn’t have been that big a deal since walking through the Montreal airport takes about five minutes–but to no avail. They just didn’t want to do it. The next flight to Hamilton was at 4pm, and that was too late for me. I decided to abandon that ticket. The counter woman suggested that I go to the ticketing counter and purchase a ticket to Toronto instead. I wasn’t going to give Air Canada any more of my money though, so I investigated my other options. Westjet had a flight going into Pearson International in Toronto. They don’t have any flights going to Hamilton from Montreal, even though they use the Hamilton airport to fly to other places. Boo. Porter Airlines is a new airline, and they use the Toronto Island airport. I decided to try them because they could take me downtown. It seemed pretty convenient. I shelled out my $260 for the ticket and was on my way by 10:35.

Flying Porter was a great experience. I can’t say enough about the friendliness of the staff. When I got on the Bombardier Q400 turboprop, the stewardess took my coat and hung it up for me.  The plane’s cabin was spacious, modern and comfortable. They designed it to be airy and bright, so you didn’t feel the sense of claustrophobia that you can get on traditional airliners. They were playing cheerful swing jazz music quietly before takeoff. In flight service was excellent. They served drinks in real glass glasses, and healthy snacks. Touchdown on the Island airport was 10 minutes ahead of schedule. There was a free ferry to cross the 120m gap between Toronto Island and the shore.

I know that the owners of Porter Airlines have been lobbying for ages to get a bridge built to span this gap. There were all kinds of objections based on the environmental impact of this bridge, but that seems ridiculous to me. Toronto long ago ruined its waterfront with stacks upon stacks of concrete and condos. There’s nothing left to protect. A 120m road would have an unnoticible impact except to Air Canada who would undoubtedly lose a lot of the business commuter traffic to airlines that use this very convenient downtown airport.

After crossing the “channel,” I got on the shuttle bus (you can see it in the picture above) and rode that to Union Station. I had to get to an appointment in Oakville by 1:00 and the GO Train seemed like the best way to do it. I rode the train to Oakville, then took a cab to my customer’s place. After my work there was done, one of the staff drove me back to the train station. I bought another ticket and rode the train to Burlington, then hopped on a bus to Hamilton’s GO station. Fortunately, I was able to reach Dad on my cell phone (the battery was on the verge of death, so I was lucky to have been able to make that call… otherwise I might have a payphone-induced illness by now). Dad picked me up at the GO station and drove me to my car at the Hamilton airport. Finally, I was able to drive home, and got there by about 6:00.

So, the moral of the story is, always use web check-in for your Air Canada flights because then you can show up 15 minutes before your flight leaves and you’ll get on board.  The secondary moral is to get some vitamin B complex capsules.

Apparently they’re good as an anti-stress agent. I have no idea how it works, but it seems to work very well for me. Today, I knew I was in a frustrating situation that was costing me a lot of money, and possibly clients, but it just sort of rolled over me, and I rolled with it. I never really felt upset, and I was a bit surprised by that. I just smiled at all the rude GO Transit ticketing agents. I said, “No problem,” to the cabbie who took the long way to my client’s place by mistake. Even when I was getting a continuous stream of phone messages from colleagues telling me to call my client in Montreal about some minor issue he was having, I just shrugged it off. I couldn’t do anything because my cell phone was out of juice and kept turning itself off. All I was thinking about was, “Ok, now what’s the next step in this trip?” So yeah, if you feel like you get yourself into some stressful situations, do yourself a favor and buy some of these B50 pills. Also, wake up 15 minutes earlier.

Here’s a photo of me at work that I took a couple of weeks ago. I finally had a moment to take the memory card out of the camera and copy the photo to the computer. It’s been a very busy month.

This weekend in summary, as much as I can remember:

• Headshot shoot with standup comic/actor
• Emergency troubleshooting for Mouse Academy clients
• Teaching improv level one class
• Cancelled Big in Japan rehearsal because of schedule fubar
• Dinner with Fiona in Toronto. Delicious filet mignon stir fry with avocado and cashew nuts in a pepper sauce.
• Went to a glass art gallery
• Watched The Departed. Infernal Affairs, the original HK movie that was the source material for The Departed was a better film.
• Improv cagematch finals with the Emergency Broadcast System (we didn’t win–our set was alright, but nothing special)
• Photoshoot with Tippi Seagram
• Watched The Protector (Tom Yum Goong). I can’t believe Quentin Tarantino attached his name to this piece of garbage.

I’ve decided to bill my work in Montreal through my company, so I’m technically still self-employed. The next step is finding a place to live here that makes sense financially, considering I’m also supporting a home in Hamilton, and soon a photo studio too.

I really do feel like I’m living two lives, and the 1 hour flight between Montreal and Hamilton serves as a metamorphosis between two states of being. Getting used to this and minimizing the transformation as much as possible is going to be important to me if I am to succeed at this and everything else I want to do.

I left for Montreal on the 7AM flight yesterday. I was certain that the man across from me was a super villain. He had the wardrobe and the “look.” He was bald, middle-aged, wore all black, and had multiple piercings in his ears. He regarded the world with a sort of squint-eyed wariness through his frameless designer glasses. The clincher was that he walked with a limp, and used a cane made of transparent plastic. Transparent plastic! Who–other than a super villain–would have such panache?!

I wondered what kind of dastardly deeds he was up to on his trip to Montreal. Was he planning a great poutine poisoning? What type of terror was he set to unleash upon the unwitting world? What could I do to stop him? Could I find a shallow pool of water in which to throw his transparent cane, so he couldn’t see it, rendering him immobile?

Thankfully, I didn’t have to act on my misgivings. I began to doubt his super-villainy when he pulled out a book entitled “How to Make Money Teaching Music.” It’s a well-known fact that super-villains and music teachers are practically indistinguishable. It’s like trying to tell the difference between the kind of seagull with the poisonous beak, and the kind without. It’s nearly impossible without a field guide. My confirmation of his non-villain status came when he started listening to his pink iPod Nano. Not even a super-villain would use a pink iPod Nano. The world is safe for another day at least.

Well that was a fun weekend home. Landing in Hamilton was a bit hairy because of the wild weather. The pilot had to abort the landing about 10 seconds from touchdown. The engines roared and the plane banked steeply into the sky again. My fellow passengers and I looked at each other nervously and joked about our short visit to Hamilton until the pilot came on the intercom to explain that he had to try a different approach to the airport because of the bad weather. The second approach worked better, and we survived the landing.

Friday night I went to see 300. Not a bad movie. But as Frank Miller graphic novel-inspired films go, I think Sin City was better. 300 had some visually stunning scenes, but the characters were a bit plastic. There were some highly sexy scenes though, and they have inspired me to do some fun shoots. I’m trying to organize one now, so we’ll see how that turns out.

Saturday was improv-filled. I was teaching from 12 until 3, and then headed to the Diesel for the St. Patty’s Day comedy festival there. Our Big in Japan set at 10:30pm was not too bad, but the 12:30am set was several kegs of beer later, and was a suitably sloppy and drunken mess. I only had a couple of beers that day, so I was able to drive home. I was exhausted when I crashed at home at about 2am.

Sunday was great. I didn’t do a whole lot, and was able to have dinner with Dad. Monday was super busy, as I had packed it up with all kinds of appointments. I also got my VoIP phone working, so I now have a Montreal phone number in Hamilton. Sweet. I’m also connected to the VPN so it’s just like my computer is hooked up to the company network… just slower.

Now I’m back in Montreal. My flight from Hamilton was delayed, probably because Air Canada decided to switch from the nice little regional jet to a deathtrap turbo propeller plane. Work continues to be challenging. I was dealing with some bug fixes and stuff, which I had not known were my problem. I mean, my projects haven’t even been designed yet, let alone gotten to the stage where they can have bugs. But the bugs were in an older website that has been up and running for a few years. As the new project manager for that client, it’s my responsibility to deal with it. I have the evening to myself tonight. Tan is off in NYC, so I’m going to go wander the city looking for something good to eat.

I’m still negotiating for the photography studio space. It’s almost settled now though.

UPDATE: Had some delicious Lebanese food at a shish-taouk place… Hesis might know this stuff as “kebab” and thus be jealous. Then I had an espresso at a corner cafe. I’m enjoying the quiet evening to myself. I haven’t had much “me” time lately. I’m grabbing it while I can.

Things are starting to settle down, more or less. I’ve now got more usernames and passwords than I can shake a stick at. I’m starting to keep a file with a long list of intranets and other internal systems that I need to access. I’m all set to work from home, too, almost. I’ll have a VoIP phone so I am connected to the phone system at work over the Internet, and a VPN account so my home computer can be attached to the network here.

As far as my actual job is concerned, I’m starting to get a handle on all that’s involved. By talking to about 6 people around the office yesterday, I have gathered all the fragments of the job together and am getting a bigger picture of what is involved. In one giant nutshell, I’m managing the design and programming of three big e-commerce websites. It’s kind of fun because I’ve seen good websites and bad websites, and now I get to try to create good ones.

On the fun side of things, we went to a wine bar after work and polished off a very nice bottle of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. We also ate all kinds of delicious and tiny appetizers. Then we went home and played XBox 360 until it was way too late, with a stop for a greasy gyros sandwich late at night. Good times. Sleep is overrated.