Leaving On A Jet Plane?

Sometimes in life you get a phone call that can change the course of your day, your week, or your life. Sometimes you get a phone call that leaves you jumping up in down in the kitchen yelling “I’m going to be the Guest Blogger for Entertainment Tonight Canada and Skinny Cow at the GRAMMYs and we leave for LA in just a few days!” It’s true; I know this because it happened to me! This phone call sent me into a panic of child care arranging, shoe shopping, dress obsessing, and “squeeing” the likes of which of which I’ve never experienced before. It was a very good week.

I’m back now and have so very much to tell you, but where to start?  Well, at the beginning of course!  Over the next week I will take you along with me as SassyHubby an I take a once in a lifetime adventure from Canada to LA.  From my wee kitchen to the grandeur of the GRAMMYs!  The experience was…..surreal. 

Departure day finally arrived, and my Hubby and I packed our bags, and headed to The Toronto Pearson International Airport to catch our flight to LA baby! The problem, the closer we got to Toronto, the worse the weather got. The weather forecasters preached doom and gloom on the radio, the snow plows couldn’t keep up with the white stuff falling from the sky, and driving was downright dangerous. Thanks to sheer determination, and perhaps a little luck, we made it to the airport in one piece and by some miracle; our flight was still scheduled to take off on time! We flew through security and customs, checked our bags and awaited our departure.

Flight delayed by 30 minutes. No worries. Flight delayed again by 30 minutes. Oh well! At least it wasn’t cancelled like the other hundreds of flights leaving Toronto that day. Flight delayed a third time. Sigh.

Finally we heard the call to board the plane! I said a little prayer of thanks, we were going to leave the snow behind and make it to LA in time for the GRAMMYs after all! We were now only 24 hours away from meeting the entire ET Canada Team on the Red Carpet! 48 hours away from the beginning of the GRAMMY’s! I was so ready to get the inside scoop on what Kelly Clarkson was wearing, who Taylor Swift was with, would I actually get to see Adam Levine?

We boarded the plane, settled in and we sat. Then we sat some more. Our flight was scheduled to take of at 12:15pm, at 3pm the Pilot made the very sad announcement that our flight to LA had been cancelled. We were being asked to get off the plane. NOOOO! How could this be happening? Didn’t they know I had to get to the GRAMMYs? I mean Hunter Hayes, Katy Perry, Pink, Ed Sheeran, and Carly Rae Jepson were waiting for me!!

We all scrambled off the plane, many convinced if they could just hurry, and grab their bags quickly they could be the first in line to re-book their flights and still get to LA. This is not how it works. When you get off a cancelled flight you are required to go back through customs, and then go to the dreaded luggage pick up. Mother Nature had been wreaking havoc outside so this meant it took FOREVER for that luggage to make it back to the luggage carousal. The process of picking up luggage took close to an hour and a half. I was surrounded by hundreds of displaced passengers, some crying, a few laughing, some shaking their heads, most on cell phones just desperately trying to make new travel arrangements. Most, like us, realizing that we are simply at the mercy at Mother Nature and we might as well make the best of it!

Hubby and I were among the lucky ones. By some stroke of luck we met up some warm and wonderful people who had a beat not only flights out the next day, but hotel reservations for the night too! We jumped right on their coat tails and enjoyed the ride. After the longest 20 minute wait for a hotel shuttle ever….the longest non travel day ended at a warm hotel with a hot dinner. It could have been worse.

Tomorrow, we get to do it all again! This time, fingers crossed, we will get to the land of the stars, and see that Red Carpet. Destination; the GRAMMYs!  Will we make it? 

Here’s a hint!