Jamaica Trip: Traveling Home

Katie January 28, 2014 0 Comments

Leaving, I caught the 8:30am shuttle (that played Cool Runnings on the way there!) with Maribeth because if not I’d be on my own at Noon and I didn’t trust myself to make it in one piece. (And I was right because I had major trouble getting on and off the shuttle even WITH help!)  We had to wait for my shoes to get swabbed before we could move on from the security check point.  Can I just point out that NO airport that I’ve visited has chairs before security? (Or in a reasonable walking distance?)  I do not WANT a pat down or to cause issues without being able to take off my shoes – but I can’t walk too far without my brace without there being potential of me falling over.  Get me a chair right before the scanner and I’d be more than willing to go the few steps without my shoes (there almost always are chairs AFTER the check point)

Leaving so early meant I had to spend most of the day at the airport as we arrived at 10:30am and my flight was not boarding until 4:30pm, but I was able to hang with Maribeth until about 1 anyway so it wasn’t too bad. And the airport had WiFi so I pretty much was fine. I also made a friend in a little girl who decided she was going to touch and smack me to try and get me to laugh.

$11 later, we were able to get lunch… I guess I should have gone for something more exotic than Wendy’s, especially if it was going to be so expensive, but oh well.

I slept through pretty much all of my first flight which was nice. Except I missed getting the immigration card to fill out.  Fortunately, I asked for a wheelchair and the woman pushing me told me that I didn’t need one if we went to these new fancy machines. Whew!  I ended up getting pulled for an extra check because one of the guys didn’t like what I said. (I have to bet it was that I was traveling “alone” but was in Jamaica for 5 days – I just wasn’t sure if I needed to go in to the song and dance of “but I met my friends from other states IN Jamaica and we’ve all now gone our separate ways so I am alone”)  They didn’t scan anything and just asked why I was in a wheelchair.  Um, because I can’t walk long distances? They passed me through and all was good.

I ended up getting to my second gate about 10 minutes before we were going to board.  They told me I’d get someone to assist me again but no on came! Fortunately I don’t really need help getting down the jetway.  At this point I just wanted to get home.  I was hoping the seat next to me would be open (last I had checked it was) but a woman was next to me.  Probably the WORST person to fly next to.  Super nervous, doing the sign of the cross before we took off, mumbling under her breath…. and when we were delayed because we had no ground power I thought she was going to demand to be taken off the flight.  It ended up being only about 30 minutes of a delay but thanks to some wind by Norfolk VA where we were flying upwards of 600 mph, we made up the time and landed as scheduled.

It was foggy as heck on the way home though! Very scary but I made it home and was beyond happy that I had taken the next day off since I didn’t get home until about 1:30am.  It was a LONG day.

Vegas Trip: Flight Home!

Katie November 9, 2013 0 Comments

For my flight home, I had a direct flight.  I wasn’t sure how long it would take for me to get to the airport so I tried to get a cab before 10am and my flight wasn’t until 1:30.  I ended up getting there and through security super quickly and had 3 hours to kill at the airport.  During those 3 hours, I killed the battery on my phone. (And hadn’t charged my back ups over night after using them up on Friday as well, Darn!) I played $1 in a Wheel of Fortune machine that was taunting me, bought the world’s grossest bagel and only ate half and then just waited and people watched.

I boarded the flight early and they were talking about how there was someone who needed a seat and they were offering up $300 + what you paid for your flight to stay in Vegas an extra night.  I could have, Kim was still in town and had the hotel room but my phone was dead so I couldn’t even tell her and I just wanted to get home.  Turns out it was a woman in a wheelchair who did get her ticket on the flight but somehow it was overbooked and her husband couldn’t get on.  Since they weren’t sure if they were going to both get on the flight or not, depending on if someone wanted to take the later flight, the woman at the counter said that the flight attendant would hold seats for them up front.

Well, let me tell you, it was not the flight attendant, it was ME who held the seats.  Since I had 2 next to me she told me to tell people they were reserved.  Most people got MAJOR attitude so I tried to say “These are reserved for disabled passengers” since I thought they’d be more likely to be ok with that.  A lot of people were just like “you’re not allowed to save seats!”  Well, I’m technically not the one saving the seat the flight attendant is. But thanks for the snootiness, you must live in Connecticut.

But in the end I was successful – and another pre-boarder was behind me and she kept saying “for someone in a wheelchair” as people were muttering under their breath about me as they passed her to try and help me out.  She said that she thought the flight attendant had put me in a tough spot! But I ended up getting some extra snacks out of the deal and the people I saved for were super nice. (A huge change from mr douchebag on the way to Vegas!)  And boo hoo to those able bodied people who had to walk further back in the plane than row 2! The horror!

There was a nice view out of the window for most of the flight, I napped a little bit, I read a little bit and we got home just a little bit behind schedule.

I grabbed my bag and saw that the shuttle to my car was outside, but didn’t have time to call in my ticket.  I gave my ticket to the driver and he called it in, but my poor Panda was missing when I got to the lot.  Fortunately one of the workers spotted me looking around for my car and went and got it for me pretty quickly.

Vegas Trip: Chippendales

Katie November 3, 2013 0 Comments

Jaymes & James from The Amazing Race was the only reason I wanted to see Chippendales. Thursday we had originally planned on seeing the show, but Jaymes had tweeted and said he would be in LA. Sad! Friday we hoped he would be back and we freaked out a little when he tweeted that he was flying back. We decided to get the 10:30 tickets so I could a) see Boyz II Men too and b) if he didn’t make it in time for the earlier show we were good.  We freaked out even more when he tweeted ME and said that he would be back in the show that night!

After Boyz II Men we headed to Harrah’s and hoped the Rio shuttle once again and made it to the Chippendales theater just as doors were opening.  No photos were allowed, of course (nudity) but the show was a lot of fun even though I didn’t really think Jaymes and James were in it all that much and there was a drunk girl standing and grinding the chair in front of her all damn night. (After the show her friends were carrying her out and she could barely stand)  Jaymes sings a lot though during the show!

After the show for $20 you can get your photo taken with all the guys and they print it up for you right on the spot! I thanked Jaymes for his tweet and he said no problem and that he was glad I made it to the show.  Then we picked up our photos, I stocked up on merch (of course) and it was time to head back and pack up all my stuff!

Vegas Trip: Drum Lessons w/ Ryan!

Katie November 2, 2013 0 Comments

Ryan from Recycled Percussion is doing drum lessons for free if you donate at least $60 to Save The Children.  If you’re in the Vegas area you should check out his website and see about getting lessons!   On Friday, Kim and I got our lesson at one of the parks in Vegas.  It had a lake and some really, really obnoxious ducks that either really liked or really hated our drumming and let it be known! Turns out I am the better drummer (woohoo) but have no regard for the tempo whatsoever. Which earned me the nickname “The Speed Demon” from Ryan.  Oops.  The lessons were fun and I learned a lot.  Ryan’s website is www.drumforthechildren.com

Vegas Trip: Jeff Civillico

Katie October 28, 2013 0 Comments

Jeff is taglined as “Comedy in Action” and is at The Quad at 4pm.  He has Turf from America’s Got Talent opening for his. Dude is ridiculous. He shouldn’t be able to do that! Jeff’s show is about an hour and you can expect unicycles, juggling, audience participation, high kicks and wedgie picks.  Our crowd was not really into it, it seemed, or a lot of his jokes were just falling flat.  Not enough a polite clap or laughter at times which he kept commenting on.  I guess that kept him on his toes to make him really need to try and impress us!  The show was a lot of fun and we were able to meet Jeff and Turf after the show.

Vegas Trip: Hard Rock / Coke Store / M&Ms Store

Katie October 25, 2013 0 Comments

Near MGM there is a strip with a Hard Rock Café, Coca Cola store and M&Ms World store.  Of course we had to hit up the Hard Rock to get a le mur to add to my collection (Only need 1 more to complete the band, we’ll see what city I end up getting it in!)  Since we were close and the other shops looked cool we stopped in.  The coke store had a ton of stuff made out of recycled bottles and labels and soda can tabs and they had a medallion machine as well so I got myself one with a polar bear on it.  The M&M store had anything and everything you could think of branded with M&Ms and the Yellow M&M was even meeting and greeting outside of the store!

Vegas Trip: Television City Focus Group

Katie October 23, 2013 0 Comments

We had our Focus Group the next day back at Television City.  There were 10 or 11 of us, all females, taken in to a room to discuss the show we had watched.  We were asked to say what we thought was working or wasn’t working, who our favorite characters were (I guess I was in the minority with my pick!) and if we would watch again and why or why not and all that kind of stuff about the show!  It was just about an hours worth of chatting and discussing and we made $50!  Certainly worth checking out if you are in the area. (Although I am not sure locals can be paid to watch the shows – out of towners are!)